In 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) froze more than 1,500 and terminated nearly 2,300 active research grants, canceling some $2.45 billion in funding and disrupting thousands of projects across the country. According to a new study led by Diego F. M. Oliveira of the University of North Dakota, these grant cuts disproportionately affected women researchers, particularly those in early-career positions.
Overall, women’s projects were smaller on average than men’s, with median awards of $940,000 for projects led by women and $1.4 million for projects led by men. However, women had a larger share of their awards unspent at the time of cancellation (57.9 percent versus 48.2 percent for men), leading to a great portion of unrealized scientific output for women compared to their male peers. Among assistant professors and doctoral candidates, some 60 percent of terminated projects were women-led.
“Because women led a larger share of training and early-career grants, the terminations disproportionately disrupted stages of the biomedical pipeline where women are most represented, intensifying risks to research continuity and workforce development,” the authors write. “Overall, the 2025 terminations unevenly affected women investigators and key career stages, magnifying long-term consequences for the U.S. biomedical workforce.”
In addition to Dr. Oliveira, the study included authors from Washington State University, Michigan State University, and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.