Under Trump, NIH funding disruptions have evolved.
asserted
disruptions → evolve → Trump
Here's what the numbers show
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) wields a $47.5 billion budget.
asserted
Institutes → show → budget
More than 80% of its funds go out the door as grants to answer pressing biomedical questions.
asserted
% → go → questions
Over the decades, those grants have helped decipher the human genome, eliminate the polio virus in the U.S. and turn AIDS from a death sentence to a survivable illness.
asserted
grants → help → illness
But experts say this kind of fundamental science is coming up against an administration that has delayed funding and rerouted billions of dollars in research, resulting in chaos for researchers and patients alike.
asserted
that → say → researchers
Trump officials say the administration's practices serve to further the agency's goals.
asserted
practices → say → goals
"NIH is committed to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars and to advancing rigorous, high-impact science that improves health outcomes for the American people," Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, wrote in an August email.
asserted
which → commit → email
More political oversight may be coming to how those funds get dispersed, according to recent reports.
uncertain
funds → come → reports
For now, court cases have restored funding, and Congress has preserved it in successive budget bills.
asserted
Congress → restore → bills
But for the scientists who have had to scrap time-sensitive experiments or have seen their labs shuttered, those top-line numbers do not tell the full story.
asserted
numbers → have → story
Here are six graphics that highlight some of the less visible impacts of changes in research funding at the NIH.
asserted
that → highlight → NIH
Loading...
The Trump administration proposed cutting the NIH budget by 41%, or by about $19.6 billion, for 2026.
asserted
administration → load → 2026
It also asked to restructure 27 institutes to eight — eliminating four outright — in its request.
asserted
It → ask → request
Congress did neither; in fact, it maintained both the existing institutes and a budget that was on par with previous years' appropriations.
asserted
that → do → appropriations
But experts say that though the total amount of funding suggests that little has changed, it masks a deeper disruption in the way that money moves.
uncertain
money → say → way
Once money is appropriated by Congress, it then has to be obligated by the NIH — committing the funds to specific projects via grants.
asserted
it → appropriate → grants
Those grants are generally doled out at a fairly consistent rate throughout the year.
asserted
grants → dole → year
But since President Trump's inauguration in 2025, that process has slowed to a crawl.
asserted
process → slow → crawl
In fiscal year 2025, the NIH ran roughly 44 days behind the average pace of 2021 to 2024; through early July 2026, it ran 42 days behind.
asserted
it → run → July
Loading...
Heather Pierce tracks NIH obligations for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
asserted
Pierce → load → Colleges
She pointed out that as of July — three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year — the NIH had obligated roughly half its budget, with billions of dollars still left on the table.
asserted
NIH → point → table
Jennifer Troyer, a former director of extramural operations for the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute, oversaw billions of dollars in grants awarded over her tenure until she resigned at the end of 2025.
asserted
she → oversee → 2025
She ticked through some of the reasons for these delays.
asserted
She → tick → delays
Grants are peer-reviewed and prepared by the NIH staff to get funded, stepping through different "statuses" in the process, says Troyer — but now, they are undergoing another level of review that she calls a "black hole."
asserted
she → review → that
"There's a status called Status 19 I didn't, even as the director, I did not know existed until things started getting stuck," says Troyer, "because it was something that [grants] would blip through for, like, a few minutes."
asserted
grants → be → minutes
Awards she had signed would go out and come back stopped, she says, flagged by the Department of Health and Human Services, by the Office of Management and Budget or by the White House "as not acceptable."
asserted
she → sign → House
At first, she says, it was the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) doing the flagging; "and then they went away, but the other systems had been put in place to do the same function."
asserted
systems → say → function
She says the staff members who used to process awards have also gone.
asserted
who → say → awards
Her institute went from 11 grants-management specialists (plus two assistants) down to just three specialists.
asserted
institute → go → specialists
Efforts to cut staff and freeze new hires exacerbated staff shortages and, in turn, further delayed funding.
asserted
Efforts → cut → funding
"We did not have the person-time to put awards out the door," she says.
asserted
she → have → door
With funding, timing is everything
The delays also affected grants that had already been awarded.
asserted
that → affect → grants
That's because many long-term NIH grants are often awarded for multiple years and paid out annually.
asserted
grants → award → years
They not only fund lab work but also pay for employees and medical care in clinical trials.
asserted
They → fund → trials
Scientists rely on that continuity to keep projects stable — which is why, prior to this administration, those renewals traditionally came in a week early, to avoid any funding gaps.
asserted
renewals → rely → gaps
Loading...
But in the past two years, grants have regularly been renewed 90 or more days late at a rate four to six times more often than in the previous four years (3.9% in the 2025 fiscal year and 2.7% in the 2026 fiscal year, compared with 0.7% in fiscal years 2021 through 2024).
asserted
grants → renew → 2024
When his grant renewal got delayed, he says, "I was starting to plan who I would cut if I needed to."
asserted
I → delay → who
Fortunately, he says, his university provided bridge funding and the grant was renewed two and a half months afterward.
asserted
grant → say → funding
Not everyone experiencing these delays has been so lucky.
asserted
everyone → experience → delays
Gutenkunst explained that researchers can sometimes get bridge funding from their institutions to keep research projects afloat, because those funds can be paid back when the grant finally renews.
asserted
grant → explain → projects
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
