By: Phone Min Thant, Staff Writer and Hannah Fraser, News Editor
In February, the Trump administration undertook a number of “drastic” steps to reduce government spending on healthcare and medical research, according to PBS. On February 7, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced the administration’s policy that would cut research funding by “limiting the amount of indirect funding for research projects” to 15%.
This equates to $4 billion in reduced funding. The NIH cut millions of dollars from accounts — and cuts continue — though US federal judges stepped in to block the policy. While the NIH is a US organization, Canadian research and education institutions also largely rely on its funding and grants. In 2024, Canadian institutions received and employed over $40 million from the NIH for various research projects. They also rely on funding opportunities from the Canadian Institute of Health Research for their research interests.
In late February, Trump proceeded to block the submission of study sessions to the Federal Register. These are “meetings in which scientists peer review NIH grant funding proposals,” according to The Guardian. This also froze grants for institutions and research groups already reliant on the NIH. A news report from NPR listed the number as “more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other institutions.” This decision also went against a federal judge’s orders that restricted the administration from “freezing or ending billions of dollars in government spending.”
“Only a small number of our health researchers currently receive funding from the NIH or have applications under review.” — SFU Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation
Trump has been focused on rejecting grants funded by the NIH for studies focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), vaccines, and 2SLGBTQIA+ issues. The NIH cited the administration’s memorandum, “Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending,” which states, “The US government spends too much money on programs, contracts, and grants that do not promote the interests of the American people.” The message called for government agencies to be “radically transparent” about how they have “wasted” citizens’ “hard-earned wages.”
Many researchers have expressed concerns about the harm these recent actions could cause, as they prevent access to research on topics under scrutiny by the Trump administration, hindering further research and diagnoses. The Guardian reported that this “loss of whole websites and datasets sent researchers and journalists scrambling to preserve information” in a “datathon” on January 31.
Fear also exists around the direct public health implications of these cuts. Researchers are concerned about how the loss of this research threatens a “decades-long effort to improve how the nation studies the health of women and queer people, or improve treatments for the medical conditions that affect them,” according to The 19th, a US not-for-profit “reporting on gender, politics, and policy.”
“[We] will see [AIDS] come back, and we see people dying the way we saw them in the ’90s and in 2000s.” — Winnie Byanyima, director, UNAIDS
As Winnie Byanyima, director of UNAIDS, told CNN regarding funding withdrawals for dozens of HIV studies, “[We] will see [AIDS] come back, and we see people dying the way we saw them in the ’90s and in 2000s.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also cut $11.4 billion in funding for COVID-19 research. NBS News reported that “hundreds of people still die every week from COVID-19, and Long COVID symptoms continue to cause debilitating medical problems.”
The Peak requested a statement from SFU’s Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation to understand how the university has been managing the NIH funding cuts. According to the office’s media team, “Only a small number of our health researchers currently receive funding from the US NIH or have applications under review.” An exact number was not provided.
“We continue to monitor impacts to our research community in response to shifts in the US policy landscape. We are working with faculties to learn more about researchers’ specific needs, to provide support where possible,” they added.
Still, students across North America seem to be gripped by anxiety about their future academic pursuits. ABC News noted that federal judges continue to challenge and “slam” Trump in court, with USA Today reporting the federal judiciary established a task force on March 26 for “the continued security and independence of the courts.” Two faculty organizations at Columbia University also recently filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s cancellation of “$400 million in federal grants and contracts.”
