NIH Pauses New Funding for Grants That Include ‘Health Equity,’ ‘Structural Racism,’ Pending Review

New guidance to the agency dictates staff must use a “text analysis tool” to identify programs deemed “misaligned” with the administration.

Jay Bhattacharya

NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya previously indicated there would be no “banned words” in the agency’s new review of grants. Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via AP

The Trump administration is pausing new funding for National Institutes of Health grants that include terms like “health equity” and “structural racism,” pending review, according to new guidance sent to agency staff and obtained by NOTUS.

What’s more, the review must be conducted first with a “computational text analysis tool” that scans for terms “that may potentially be associated with misalignment with the administration’s priorities,” per the guidance.

No new funding will be issued to grants identified as misaligned “until the project has been assessed, and all areas of non-alignment have been addressed,” reads the memo, which was sent to staff last week.