University of Utah researchers can continue work as usual, but federal funding for future research remains uncertain a week after President Donald Trump’s memo halting all federal funding.
“[The memo] cannot interfere or cease funding for already awarded grants, so if you have a funded research proposal, continue as written in your grant unless you have reached out to your program officer,” The U’s vice president for research, Erin Rothwell said at a webinar Tuesday.
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order temporarily suspending all federal funding. However, the directive was rescinded when a federal judge stalled its implementation. Still, the directives’ funding review remains in effect, and agencies must submit outlines of their funding priorities to the president by Feb. 10.
Rothwell described the executive order as “vague and far-reaching” and said administrators at the U are still learning how to navigate its impact. However, she stressed that the memo does not cancel grants already awarded. A district court placed a temporary restraining order on the executive order’s funding freeze on Jan. 29, leaving any funding pause to each federal agency’s discretion.
Every federal agency reacted differently to the memo, with some agencies reinstating funding and others keeping funds on hold, Rothwell said. She pointed to the National Institute of Health (NIH) pausing the review of new research proposals and temporarily ceasing communication with grant recipients as one pressing example.
“We’re waiting for guidance from the NIH … but you may need to resubmit during another grant cycle, or I would certainly encourage you to continue to submit with the planned cycle at this time,” Rothwell said.
Funding for Health Disparities Research
A common concern addressed in the webinar was how the Trump administration’s priority to terminate all Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) activities will impact future research into health disparities.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the principal agency that houses numerous subsidiary agencies like the NIH, has not clearly defined what research falls under DEIA. However, the NIH made it clear that research for health disparities will continue, said Neli Ulrich, executive director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI).
“This is a different ball game,” she said. “Health disparities are a different set of research questions and … include all underserved populations, including rural populations.”
However, public health agency leaders are struggling to figure out where research on health equity falls under since it includes the word “equity” found in the term DEIA, Ulrich said. She added that health equity is a part of HCI’s “cancer support grants that our elected officials truly value.“
“We honestly don’t yet know where this is going to land, but there’s a lot of advocacy for health equity and health disparities to stay outside of that area that is currently getting primarily targeted,“ Ulrich said.
Rachel Hess, associate vice president for Research-Health Sciences, said that while research into health disparities comes from funds allocated by Congress, funds for health equity do not. Still, while the termination of DEIA programs won’t impact research into health disparities, Hess said she wanted “to take this opportunity to implore everybody to use the words that they actually want to use and not shorthand for words that have become convenient to use.“
Hess then gave examples of ways researchers can apply for grants without controversy.
“Instead of, ‘we need to engage diverse communities in our research and will be specifically recruiting them.‘ One could have a section entitled ‘How do you make sure that your sampling strategy is statistically valid to represent the population that you are trying to make inferences about?‘” she said.
“When we think about sampling from a population, the sample that we take must represent the population that we wish to make inferences about. If we wish to make inferences about women, we only recruit women; if we wish to make inferences about men, we only recruit men,“ Hess added. “I think this is an opportunity to be very clear about why we are doing things and not use jargon that is easy to attack.”
The U’s Office of the Vice President for Research will hold question and answer sessions every Friday this month at noon over Zoom.
