NIH Cancels Alzheimer’s Grants Studying Racism, Prompting Research Setbacks

In mid-2026 the Trump administration terminated at least three National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants at Emory University and the University of Pittsburgh, withdrawing roughly $15 million earmarked for studies on how racial discrimination affects long-term brain health. The grants, awarded for multi-year Alzheimer’s research, were delayed for months in 2025 and again in early 2026 before letters announced their cancellation. Researchers reported that funding expected in January–February arrived only in June, and termination notices followed a month later. The cancellations follow a Supreme Court shadow-docket decision (5-4) that upheld a separate $783 million NIH funding cut, though the current grants were not covered by that ruling.

The Guardian

The latest action continues a pattern that began in the spring of 2025, when the administration withdrew billions of dollars from federal grants linked to “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). Those cuts sparked lawsuits from major research institutions; a federal judge later ruled the cancellations illegal and ordered reinstatement. Nonetheless, the administration proceeded with additional terminations, focusing on projects that incorporate surveys of self-reported discrimination and other socially driven risk factors.

The Guardian

Correspondence to the investigators emphasized that reliance on self-reported measures was deemed “not scientifically valid.” The administration’s approach has been described by legal scholars as a “test case” strategy, suggesting an effort to craft legally defensible cancellations after earlier court defeats.

The Guardian

• “Those things we’re measuring are scientifically valid concepts,” — Emory University, of Pittsburgh

The Guardian

• “We don’t actually measure structural racism. We use that as a framing for why one population is at such high risk,” — Andrea Rosso

The Guardian

• “At the time, we were basically trying to run the study on a shoestring, and a lot of people didn’t get paid,” — Negar Fani, associate professor of psychiatry at Emory University

The Guardian

• “We were running on fumes until we could get the second year of funds; those came in June, but the termination followed one month later,” — Fani. At Pittsburgh

The Guardian

• “It was saying that self-reported measures are not scientifically valid, and as a scientist that would rule out a large portion of our entire field,” — Negar Fani, associate professor of psychiatry at Emory University

The Guardian