Concern washed over the scientific research community in Rhode Island after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services paused all external communications on Jan. 22.
When researchers from across the country began sharing news about sudden cancellations of so-called “study sections,” grant review panels coordinated through the National Institutes of Health, the worry only grew.
“It’s concerning that the major Institute in the United States has really ceased communication with us researchers and medical scientists,” said Dr. Philip Chan, associate professor at Brown University and Chief Medical Officer at Open Door Health, a clinic in Providence.
When the Trump Administration froze federal grant and loan funding on Tuesday, only to backtrack on Wednesday, it left recipients of federal aid all over the country confused. And in Rhode Island, it further compounded what Abdullah Shihipar, a research associate at Brown University, called “widespread panic.”
“All of these actions in tandem are concerning about the federal government’s ability not just to fund research but to fund critical programs across the country,” Shihipar said.
Chan said he had “not seen anything like this before” and that it “saddens” him to see research-based clinical and public health institutions “undermined and chipped away at.”
His research projects have received millions in NIH funding in recent years, dollars that allow him to employ teams of researchers and cover hard costs like equipment. Chan said that if he lost grant funding, it would put dozens of jobs on the line. And he’s not alone.
Between 2019 and 2023, the most recent year for which data are available, researchers in Rhode Island received roughly $250 million a year in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health. Most — nearly 55% — of those dollars went to researchers at Brown University, supporting inquiry into issues ranging from overdose prevention, to Alzheimer’s, to HIV prevention.
A spokesperson for Brown University referred The Public’s Radio to a public statement explaining how the institution is evaluating the impacts of various steps taken by the Executive Branch. Brown University Health, which operates Rhode Island Hospital, declined to comment. Last year, Rhode Island Hospital researchers saw almost $40 million in NIH grants.
In a written statement, a spokesperson for the University of Rhode Island said that “given the evolving situation, and how new and sudden the restrictions are, we are still sorting through how this may affect the many researchers and their planned studies throughout the University.” In 2023, researchers at the university received more than $18 million in funding.
Last week, several researchers shared on Bluesky that scheduled grant review sessions had been cancelled. Officially called “study sections,” the NIH convenes panels of independent experts to review and score proposals. At this point, it’s not clear how many of the reviews were cancelled or when NIH might resume the reviews. According to a letter from Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink, the agency also paused all external communications through at least February 1.
“We’ve had communication pauses before,” said Shihipar, the Brown University research associate. “We haven’t had an extensive sort of all agency pause, which pauses these critical research functions.”
On Monday, the Trump Administration announced it would issue additional guidance about what functions can resume under the ongoing communications-freeze at NIH.
Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI 1) said he is particularly concerned that the upset at NIH and other public health agencies could signal the Trump Administration is targeting both programs supporting and researchers investigating issues that affect marginalized groups.
“A lot of what has been described is the desire to eliminate DEI and any LGBTQ focused or even adjacent activity which is, again, very harmful,” Amo said.
The uncertainty is particularly grating for early-career researchers like Dr. Marie Camerota, assistant professor of psychiatry at Brown. She said the confusion at public health agencies and questions about funding priorities at the Executive Branch have made it harder to plan research.
“We’re always thinking years in the future,” she said. “Not knowing what topics will or will not be of interest to this administration, that’s just really stressful to be able to plan.”
Her colleague Dr. Alexandrea Craft, an assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Brown, is concerned her research may not align with Trump Administration priorities. Her work focuses on disparate outcomes for people of color in neonatal intensive care units.
“There’s a question around how our desire to address these health equity issues may or may not be supported with the administration’s policies,” Craft said.
Dr. Barry Lester is a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics and a director of the Center for Children at Risk at Women & Infants Hospital. He said he’s never seen anything like this in his decades working with federal grants.
“Can you imagine we’re trying to plan grants and then we have to ask ourselves ‘Wait, do we want to go there because the administration might not like it?’” he said. “That’s just unheard of.”
Lester said for him and his colleagues that uncertainty is emotionally grating — and something they don’t expect to alleviate any time soon.
