The Trump administration has inflicted significant damage on the U.S. research system over the past year, disrupting and altering the relatively stable federal funding sources that have long underpinned America's scientific leadership. Although courts and Congress have halted some of the most severe cuts proposed by Trump, ongoing research projects continue to decline, leading to a contraction in the U.S. scientific ecosystem. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been particularly hard hit. Overall, the number of research projects supported by the NIH in fiscal year 2025 has decreased by more than 2,700 compared to the previous fiscal year, and the number of competitive research grant awards has dropped by approximately 15%. By mid-fiscal year (as of March 31), the number of competitive research grants awarded by the NIH had fallen by more than half compared to the same period last year. Analysis shows that biomedical research funding has also undergone structural changes, with reduced coverage across nearly all major disease areas—funding for women’s health, cancer, and mental health research, in particular, has seen significant declines.
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Original: toutiao.com/article/1862967965715721/
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