Georgia scientists face renewed research cuts after Supreme Court ruling

In June, Wharton learned the two grants had been reinstated following a federal court ruling against the Trump administration. She resumed her work, which also focuses on helping LGBTQ caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s. Now she fears the funding will be canceled a second time following Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision, which lifted the lower court’s order.

As of Monday, the NIH and National Science Foundation combined had cut or frozen 103 research grants totaling $60 million at 16 Georgia universities and colleges this year, according to an analysis by Grant Witness, a project led by a group of scientists and researchers.

Nationwide, more than 7,000 such grants totaling more than $5.2 billion have been cut or frozen since February, according to the analysis, which draws on federal records and information supplied by grant recipients.

Those numbers could grow substantially. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, hundreds of other NIH grants that were terminated and then reinstated could be canceled again, including 12 in Georgia worth about $45 million in unspent funds, Grant Witness’ data shows. That could push Georgia’s loss in research funding past $100 million.

The head-spinning changes in the federal government and the courts have alarmed scientists like Wharton who are seeking cures for some of America’s leading causes of death, including Alzheimer’s, cancer and diabetes. The rapidly changing developments, they added, have sown uncertainty and thrown their research into chaos.

“We are on this roller coaster, and it is literally impossible to plan,” Wharton said. “It feels like one step forward and then two steps back. And I still don’t know what to do at this point.”

There is also an economic impact. The NIH alone awarded $783 million in grants and contracts in Georgia last year, supporting 11,593 jobs and $2.2 billion in economic activity in the state, according to United for Medical Research, which advocates for increased NIH funding.

The NSF and NIH canceled the research funding after President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January directing the government to terminate all programs related to diversity and equity and to block federal spending for the promotion of “gender ideology.”

The NSF, an independent federal agency that supports science and engineering, has canceled grants related to water quality, civilian oversight of police and correcting misinformation online.

The NSF issued a statement in response to a list of questions emailed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, saying its “mission is to promote the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, and secure the national defense. It is our priority to ensure all NSF awards aim to create opportunities for all Americans everywhere, without exclusion of any groups.”

The grants canceled by the NIH featured one or more “flagged words.” Grant Witness compiled those words partly from The New York Times’ reporting on the Trump administration’s efforts to purge the federal government of “woke” initiatives. Among the flagged words are: Black, diverse, ethnicity, inclusion, LGBTQ, mental health, minority and trans.

The largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, the NIH has terminated grants focused on a variety of mental and physical health conditions, including breast cancer, COVID-19, depression, HIV and kidney disease.

The NIH also issued a statement in response to questions emailed by the AJC, saying it is “committed to restoring the agency to its tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science.” It added that it is “carefully reviewing all grants to assure the agency is addressing the United States chronic disease epidemic.”

On Aug. 5, the federal Government Accountability Office issued a report accusing the Trump administration of violating federal law by withholding NIH grant funds. In its decision, the GAO highlighted that Congress — which holds the power of the purse under the U.S. Constitution — appropriated money for those grants. The GAO’s report also says the NIH committed almost $8 billion less in grants this year compared to the same time frame last year.

Before Trump took office in January, NIH grant terminations were rare. Between 2015 and 2024, for example, fewer than 20 were canceled each year on average, said Jeremy Berg, who directed the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences from 2003 to 2011. Among the reasons for those cancellations were researcher illnesses and misconduct, said Berg, a partner with Grant Witness.

Among the organizations affected by the funding cuts are some of Georgia’s top research institutions, including Emory University, Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia. Emory has experienced the highest loss of NSF and NIH research funding combined in Georgia at nearly $10 million, according to the Grant Witness data.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s historically Black colleges and universities have lost millions of dollars in such funding, including Clark Atlanta University, and Morehouse and Spelman colleges.

Smaller institutions in more politically conservative parts of the state have also been affected by the cuts, including the University of North Georgia. That university is in Dahlonega, the Lumpkin County government seat. Trump won Lumpkin with nearly 81% of the vote in the November presidential election.

Miriam Segura, who teaches biology at North Georgia, learned in April the NSF had canceled a five-year research grant she was working on with colleagues at four universities in other states.

The project was focused on diversifying the membership of the educational organization Segura leads, the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research. That, Segura said, included attracting people to her organization from universities in other parts of the country. The government wrote in its cancellation notice, according to Segura, that the project was “not in alignment with current NSF priorities.”

Segura said she was disappointed by the decision. But her education research organization, she said, has been able to “diversity our sources of funding for the professional society, so the impact wasn’t as severe.”

Credit: University of North Georgia

Credit: University of North Georgia

State attorneys general, researchers and advocacy organizations are suing the NIH and NSF in federal courts, opposing the grant cancellations. So far, their lawsuits have been met with mixed results.

On Aug. 1, a federal judge in New York declined to order the government to restore the canceled NSF grants. Two months earlier, a federal judge in Massachusetts accused the Trump administration of discriminating against racial minorities and LGBTQ people. He also declared the NIH cuts to be illegal and ordered the agency to restore more than $700 million in research funding.

“I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” U.S. District Judge William Young said June 16, according to Politico.

The Trump administration appealed to First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which declined to temporarily put Young’s order on hold. But Thursday, a divided Supreme Court lifted Young’s order.

The Trump administration is also cutting research funding because of how it was originally awarded.

For example, Amelia Cuarenta learned this year the NIH had canceled her research grant. Then a postdoctoral research fellow at Georgia State University, Cuarenta was studying neurobiological processes underlying mental health disorders and addiction. Her research, according to the university, could have helped develop new treatments.

The NIH informed the university in April it would not fund Cuarenta’s five-year grant beyond the first year because it was “related to diversity, equity and inclusion.” Studies of those subjects, the NIH wrote in its cancellation notice, “are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans.”

Credit: Courtesy of Amelia Cuarenta

Credit: Courtesy of Amelia Cuarenta

Georgia State appealed the NIH’s cancellation, underscoring that her research does not focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. In rejecting the appeal, the NIH noted it had canceled the program that funded Cuarenta’s research and that was aimed at increasing diversity in the nation’s biomedical research workforce. A Latina who was raised by a single mother, Cuarenta is the first of her family to obtain a graduate degree.

“The thing that was really disheartening and frustrating is that this research that I am conducting is so important for Americans in general and not any one specific category,” Cuarenta said. “I felt that I was having this funding cut because of my identity — because I am part of an underrepresented community in the health sciences.”