News brief

Major spending cuts by the Trump administration “harm the health of Americans and people across the globe,” politicize research, and “waste public resources,” according to dozens of scientists, researchers, and other employees at the NIH. In their letter, NIH staff members said the agency had terminated 2,100 research grants totaling about $9.5 billion and an additional $2.6 billion in contracts since President Donald Trump took office Jan. 20. These terminations “throw away years of hard work and millions of dollars” and put patient health at risk, the letter said.

Publicly funded research has long fueled U.S. leadership in the sciences. In March, we reported how the Trump administration calls for reforms in this arena, but many researchers say funding cuts are putting a national strength at risk.