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In the past month, the National Institutes of Health cancelled $12.4 million in unspent grant funding that was supporting 19 separate research projects and other activities at Yale and the University of Connecticut.

The grant terminations came after President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions.” 

Of the 19 grants terminated in Connecticut, 17 were designated to Yale and two to UConn.

In 2024, the Yale School of Medicine received more than $598 million in NIH funding. The cancelled grants were originally for more than $42 million combined. Slightly more than $11 million was unspent when the awards were terminated.

At the University of Connecticut, the grants totaled $1.7 million, with $1 million left unspent when they were terminated, according to the tracker maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

According to the NIH grants policy statement, grant payments are usually awarded as advance payments. “The intent is that recipients draw funds on an as-needed basis —specifically, no more than 3 business days before the funds are needed,” the policy states.

Most of the research cut for both schools were of research projects that dealt with mental health and LGBTQ+ issues. Words like “sex,” “transgender,” “mental health” and “minority” were among the most commonly used words in the titles of the grants.

Some of these projects supported research on AIDS prevention and HIV, alcohol use, and SARS-CoV-2 infection.

These awards support departments such as internal medicine, public health and preventive medicine, psychiatry, pediatrics, emergency medicine, social sciences and engineering. 

While most grants supported research projects, there were also other activities supported by the cut grants.

Renata is the data reporter for CT Mirror. She recently graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in data journalism. For her undergraduate studies, she graduated cum laude from Pennsylvania State University with dual bachelor’s degrees in international politics and broadcast journalism, and minors in global security and Middle East studies. Renata has a background in data analysis and programming, with proficiency in Python, QGIS, and HTML, among other tools. She previously interned at the Malala Fund and has reported stories from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Brazil. She speaks four languages and is currently learning a fifth.