Feb 9, 2025 Story by: Editor
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s recent actions to curb diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in federally funded programs have created uncertainty for researchers like Kendra Dahmer, who studies intestinal parasites in India and Benin.
Dahmer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, is supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research.
Her grant is intended to sustain her research through the summer of 2026, but she now questions whether that funding will remain intact. As the first in her family to graduate from college and a woman in science, she benefited from diversity-focused funding. Now, she is concerned about how Trump’s executive order targeting DEI could impact financial support for her field of study.
“There’s also this aspect of research that funds specific studies in specific populations that are now being deemed DEI,” Dahmer said. “So, like HIV research in Africa may be deemed DEI, malaria research, which also happens in low and middle income countries, may be considered DEI. And these are really important diseases that kill hundreds of thousands of people every year.”
Just two days after Trump signed the DEI-related executive order on Jan. 21, concerns among researchers escalated when the White House moved to freeze funding for an ideological review of all federal grants and loans. However, after legal challenges, two judges intervened, leading the administration to withdraw the freeze. This week, the NIH and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which finance a significant portion of U.S. research, resumed the release of grants.
Despite this development, anxiety persists among scientists reliant on federal funding. The NSF has indicated that it is still reviewing “projects, programs and activities to be compliant with the existing executive orders,” leaving uncertainty over both new and existing NIH grants.
On Friday night, the NIH announced a reduction in payments toward overhead costs for research institutions receiving its grants—a move that could leave universities facing financial shortfalls. While some institutions currently receive over 50% of grant amounts to support administrative and operational expenses, the new policy caps those payments at 15%.
Universities, which collectively received nearly $60 billion for research in the 2023 fiscal year, have largely remained reserved in their response. In statements to faculty and students, institutions have indicated they are still assessing the executive order’s implications. Meanwhile, they are working to address how the order affects their own policies aimed at supporting underrepresented students.
The University of California stated it is “evaluating recent executive orders issued by President Trump and the subsequent agency guidance to understand their potential impact on our communities.”
Although the full extent of these changes remains unclear, some projects are already being postponed due to uncertainty regarding future funding, said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors.
According to Wolfson, research on artificial intelligence and how racism can be embedded in algorithms has been halted, along with studies on health equity and urban literacy rates in predominantly Black communities.
“I think the people who are making these decisions are very clear that they want to create a society that’s based on deep-set inequities that are hard baked and don’t transform whether that’s around race, whether that’s around class, whether that’s around gender,” he said.
The Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.
For historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), federal funding cuts related to DEI could further strain already limited resources.
North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest HBCU in the nation, has been working for years to achieve R1 status—a Carnegie Foundation designation for high research activity. However, Trump’s intervention in federal funding could slow that progress, said Joseph Graves, a biology professor. He noted that even under current conditions, biology students conduct research in freezing temperatures due to inadequate heating in aging facilities.
Graves also warned that increased scrutiny on federal research grants could jeopardize fellowships for HBCU students who rely on federal funding. These scholarships enable minority students to pursue academic opportunities they might not otherwise afford.
According to Graves, the administration’s stance on DEI could make HBCUs a particular focus of funding cuts.
“They will look at our excellence in doing work that is changing the demography of science, and they will attack it as DEI,” Graves said. “Whatever we do, we’re doing DEI whether they like it or not.” Source: AP News
