University research in turmoil after Trump administration declares diversity policies 'illegal'

President Donald Trump's order against diversity, equity and inclusion policies has thrown into doubt the future of research Kendra Dahmer has been doing on intestinal parasites in India and Benin.
Dahmer, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, has a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the single largest funder of biomedical research in the world.
The grant is supposed to cover her research through the summer of 2026, but now she wonders if that will be possible. She received diversity-based funding as the first college graduate in her family and a woman in science and, more broadly, she is uncertain about the political appetite for her study subjects.
"So part of my worry is that since I'm on this diversity supplement as a diverse individual, that my funding may be cut," Dahmer said. "But there's also this aspect of research that funds specific studies in specific populations that are now being deemed DEI."
Two days after Trump signed the executive order on DEI on Jan. 21 researchers became even more alarmed when the White House called for a funding freeze to conduct an ideological review of all federal grants and loans. After days of chaos and legal wrangling, two judges intervened and the administration rescinded the freeze. The National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, which fund a large chunk of research in the country, this week began releasing grants.
But that hasn’t eased the fears of some academic scientists and researchers who depend on federal funds for their work. The NSF said they are still conducting “a comprehensive review of our projects, programs and activities to be compliant with the existing executive orders,” and it’s not yet clear what may happen to new and existing NIH grants.
Universities, which received almost $60 billion for research in the 2023 fiscal year have been mostly quiet, issuing statements to their staff and students explaining they are still trying to clarify the executive order’s meaning while bracing for additional action from the White House that could impose political constraints on research funding.
The University of California said in a statement it is “evaluating recent executive orders issued by President Trump and the subsequent agency guidance to understand their potential impact on our communities.”
There are still a lot of unknowns, said Todd Wolfson, president of American Association of University Professors.
Wolfson said some of the studies already being halted includes research on artificial intelligence and how racism can be coded into systems, projects on health equity and even questions on the urban literacy rate as it relates to class in places with large concentrations of Black people is being halted.
Threats to funding for research related to DEI could eliminate a lifeline for historically Black colleges and universities, which are already significantly underfunded compared to predominantly white institutions.

[@STEM-Travel]

More of this money should go to the researchers in the United States. Only 20 to 25% of the applicants are funded through NIH and NSF. And many researchers who work hard are underpaid.

[@dreamteam308]

Knowing from experience these cuts are good, plenty of pointless research out there. Funds should also be redirected by priority and to private research businesses for replication/verification of high impact studies.

[@sunnyisland6709]

Useless

[@LadieKadie]

TOTAL WASTE OF TAX DOLLARS‼️

[@PamX-o4b]

Figures look at the green hair😂