By SUSAN JONES
While the cuts to National Institutes of Health indirect costs reimbursement are on hold for now, that doesn’t mean Pitt and other universities throughout the country aren’t seeing grant money go away.
Health and Human Services
The Department of Health and Human Services — the parent organization of NIH — has long had the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS), a database of grants awarded by the 12 HHS operating divisions.
Recently, it also started listing canceled grants, with the note: “In accordance with the Presidential Memo ‘Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending,’ information on terminated grants may be accessed through this link.” The list of terminated grants since Jan. 20 was 49 pages long as of today.
Pitt has several grants on the list, including:
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Network of Modeling Centers to Improve Evidence Base for Seasonal and Pandemic Influenza Prevention and Control: Total grant, $375,000 from CDC; amount unspent at termination, $121,056
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Promoting Inclusive Excellence: $879,690 from NIH; $552,295 unspent
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Psychosocial Predictors of Risk for Suicidal Behavior Among Gender Minority Adolescents: $785,097 from NIH; $496,172 unspent
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Building an interprofessional and diverse workforce in substance use and pain: $202,337 from NIH; $143,747 unspent
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Biological Mechanisms of Suicidal Behavior among Sexual Minority Adolescents – Supplement: $878,685 from NIH; $8,737 unspent
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Dopamine Availability and Developmental Pathways of Adolescent Depression and Anhedonia: $2,379,519 from NIH; $859,105 unspent
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Building Up (Diversity on science teams): $2,822,273 from NIH; $65,079 unspent
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A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Game-Based Intervention to Reduce Alcohol Use among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: $1,427,557 from NIH; $341,979 unspent
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Social-Affective Vulnerability to Suicidality among LGBTQ Young Adults: Proximal and Distal Factors: $2,924,151 from NIH; $238,777 unspent
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Modeling Adolescent Health Care Decision-Making for Vaccines: A Community-based Participatory Approach: $633,148 from NIH; $455,717 unspent
Pitt researchers likely are also impacted by grants canceled at other universities, if they are involved in a collaborative project.
The annual report from United for Medical Research — a coalition of leading research institutions, patient and health advocates and private industry seeking strong and sustainable increases in funding for the National Institutes of Health — found that in fiscal year 2024, the $36.94 billion awarded to researchers in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia supported 407,782 jobs and $94.58 billion in new economic activity nationwide.
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Washington Post reported on April 7 that more than 1,200 grants that support culture and history programs across the country are estimated to have been cut by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), according to the National Humanities Alliance, a coalition that advocates for the humanities and NEH funding on Capitol Hill.
On April 1, the New York Times reported that representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency, told NEH managers it was looking to cut as much as 70 to 80 percent of the agency’s roughly 180-person staff. The next day, humanities councils in all 50 states received notice that their grants were being terminated.
For instance, the executive director of PA Humanities, which supports museums, art centers, libraries and more by providing grants and training, said she received an email after midnight on April 3 notifying her that the organization's remaining $1.2 million in 2025 NEH funding was canceled, effective immediately, according to Axios Pittsburgh.
One of the organizations hit by the NEH cuts was the American Musicological Society in New York, which had all four of its active NEH grants terminated, effective April 1. These grants support programs like Many Musics of America, which spotlights the richness and diversity of America’s musical traditions, and Music of the United States of America, a series, begun in the 1980s, of more than 40 scholarly editions featuring American musical works of exceptional artistic quality and historical significance.
Pitt’s Center for American Music has hosted six NEH Summer Institutes for teachers over the years and two NEH Landmarks of History workshops, the most recent in summer 2024. A Pitt spokesman said the center submitted an application in February to offer the workshop again in summer 2026 but organizers don’t know if that’s going to happen because of the current state of the NEH.
News reports say the NEH canceled over 85% of its grants in early April and is planning to redirect some of those funds to President Trump's proposed National Garden of American Heroes. The NEH’s acting director told senior leaders that funding would emphasize patriotic programming, according to the New York Times.
The NEH, on its funding website, said: “As a federal agency, NEH is required to comply with executive orders issued by the president that pertain to activities conducted by the agency. If litigants challenge the legitimacy of any executive orders that the president has issued and that NEH has been following, NEH will comply with all judicial rulings that result from any such litigation.”
Other agencies
The impact of cuts to funding agencies throughout the federal government will likely have an impact at Pitt too.
Last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new policy to reduce the funding of “indirect costs” of research grants to 15%. A judge in February issued a permanent injunction to a similar plan by NIH.
A group of universities and education groups filed a lawsuit seeking to halt the cuts and a temporary restraining order was issued. The plaintiffs include Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Princeton University, the University of Rochester, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
Although Pitt’s grants from DOE are significantly less than those from NIH, Chancellor Joan Gabel told Senate Council on April 17 that Pitt is working closely with the national organizations, noting she serves on the board of all three.
Nature reported this week that all new research grants have been frozen at the National Science Foundation by DOGE. It said the Elon Music-led DOGE is also now reviewing a list of active research grants assessed in February by the NSF for terms associated with diversity, equity and inclusion, and considering more than 200 of them for termination, NSF staff members told Nature.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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