Public health experts and labour unions are seeking to overturn the mass cancellation of research grants by appointees of United States President Donald Trump at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In legal papers filed on Wednesday, the complainants describe an “ ideological purge of hundreds of critical research projects” – supposedly because they have “some connection to ‘gender identity’ or ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ (“DEI”) or other vague, now-forbidden language.”

But, they add, the action of the defendants – NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy – against “peer-reviewed science has not stopped at topics deemed to be related to gender or DEI.” 

“The defendants’ ideological purity directives also seek to cancel research deemed related to ‘vaccine hesitancy,’ ‘COVID,’ and studies involving entities located in South Africa and China, among other things,” they note.

They also object to the NIH’s cancellation of initiatives “designed to diversify the backgrounds of those in tenure-track positions at research universities.”

Impact on complainants

The court action has been brought by the American Public Health Association, Ibis Reproductive Health, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers (UAW), which all represent members who have lost grants and jobs.

 Researchers Brittany Charlton, Katie Edwards, Dr Peter Lurie and Nicole Maphis are also complainants.

Charlton, a professor at Harvard Medical School, is the founding Director of the university’s LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence. She has lost five NIH grants worth over $9 million, had to lay off 18 staff and lost most of her salary.

Edwards, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, has lost $11.9 million of grant money for research on preventing sexual and related forms of violence amongst minority communities. She has to retrench 50 staff.

Lurie, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, has lost funding for research on HIV prevention.

Maphis, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine, had her research grant on the link between alcohol and Alzheimer’s disease cancelled solely because it was aimed at diversifying the science profession. She is the first person in her family to attend college.

The NIH is the largest funder of biomedical research in the world, with an operating budget of $48 billion as allocated by the US Congress. It provides almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every state.

‘Unlawful and unconstitutional’

The complainants argue that the NIH’s action violates the Administrative Procedure Act in five different ways, including that it is arbitrary and capricious and exceeds its statutory authority as well as violating the separation of powers.

It wants the court to declare the NIH’s directives on grant terminations from 28 February to be “unlawful and unconstitutional”, and for the grants to be restored.

This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business. These are going to be huge losses to the research and public health community.https://t.co/bnLfog52bs

— Michael Osterholm (@mtosterholm) April 2, 2025

Aside from the grant cancellations, the directors of four of the NIH’s 27 institutes have been removed, including the country’s top infectious diseases official, reports Nature.

Jeanne Marrazzo of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Diana Bianchi of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Eliseo Pérez-Stable of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and Shannon Zenk of the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) were placed on administrative leave on 31 March. 

Only the NIH head is usually removed by an incoming president. Pérez-Stable, for example, has served three different presidents over his tenure.

“This will go down as one of the darkest days in modern scientific history in my 50 years in the business,” says Dr Michael Osterholm, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota. “These are going to be huge losses to the research community.”

The gutting of the NIH follows mass firings of HHS staff last month, with around 10,000 people losing their jobs.

Image Credits: NIH.