National Institutes of Health grants facing political review delays

The Trump administration has implemented an unprecedented political review process at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), causing hundreds of medical research grants to be delayed. Reports indicate that political appointees are flagging and freezing policy-focused grant applications, even those that had already been approved by scientific peer reviewers and NIH staff.

This extra layer of scrutiny involves a holding process for awards that previously would have proceeded to payment once they reached “status 19,” an administrative code signifying senior leadership sign-off. The reviews are being applied to both newly funded grants and annual payment installments for existing projects.

Grants being flagged include research related to maternal health, contraceptive use, aging, dementia, and opioid abuse. Additionally, applications are reportedly being scrutinized for the use of specific terms related to race, gender, or social sciences, such as “women,” “female,” “bias,” and “race.”