Scott Delaney

NIH shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs Special Report: The NIH has shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs.

"The only reason I don’t have this funding is because my last name is Rodriguez,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the science."

STAT on the betrayal of early-career researchers:
www.statnews.com/2025/12/08/t...

It's good—very good, and very important—that district courts keep issuing these 100-page rulings upholding the law. It must be incredibly dispiriting to see them overturned in a two-page, lawless, unsigned order, but please, keep them coming. They expose SCOTUS' corruption like nothing else.

What's this mean for NIH-funded scientists?

It means the next time that Trump/RFK/JB want to terminate grants on topics they don't like, they'll have less trouble in court defending their actions.

It also means less certainty for scientists, less research, and more harm to US scientific leadership

We knew this regulation was going into effect, but we didn't yet know whether and how NIH might seek to use it.

Yesterday, we found out. NIH will indeed add specific language to new grant terms and, in doing so, it'll preserve the option to use this new power.

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

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HHS devises legal playbook for future grant terminations, internal memo shows Exclusive: HHS devises a legal playbook for future research grant terminations, an internal memo shows.

Update on a significant development NIH grant terms.

On 10/1, a change to grant making regs went into effect that gives NIH more power to terminate grants for policy reasons.

But to use this power, new grant terms must include specific language. See @aniloza.bsky.social w/ the story from July.

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Can confirm. I am okay and more motivated than ever to speak up.

Nothing scares this administration more. Their power lies in our silence.

The CDC Data Project In the proposed FY26 budget, programs that help Americans live safer, healthier, longer lives are on the chopping block.

New-to-me but very helpful visualizations how all the actions of the past ten months are affecting the CDC www.cdcdataproject.org

Tip Sheet: How To Cover Ongoing Chaos in Science Funding - CASW Connector CASW Connector hosted a Chat, Oct. 9, 2025, on how journalists can cover science funding freezes, cuts and reinstatements during Trump 2.0.

Covering federal science funding? Check out the tipsheet from our Connector Chat with @stephaniemlee.bsky.social, @katherinejwu.com, and @scott-delaney.bsky.social, which includes a recording, tips for navigating Grant Witness, and lots of online resources.

connector.casw.org/tip-sheet-ho...

Scientists had to change more than 700 grant titles to receive NIH funding. Health disparities researchers fear what’s next The titles of more than 700 multi-year NIH grants have been changed this year, according to an analysis by Jeremy Berg, a former agency official

The NIH has insisted there are no banned words

But, an analysis by @jeremymberg.bsky.social found over 700 hundred grants changed their titles from '24 to '25

Some see it as a small price to pay to keep their grant, but others are worried about what comes next

www.statnews.com/2025/10/29/n...

Fun fact. Trump destruction of soybean exports (rightfully) gets lots of attention. But you know what we sell even more of to China? Education.
2024 soybean exports to China: $13B.
Higher Ed: $14B.
Yes, all those internat’l students count as *exports.* Trump is STILL actively destroying that market.

Amidst a government shutdown in which the White House has proposed slashing federal support of science by billions of dollars, our #SCIMaP team continues to assess the impact of research cuts on communities nationwide.

Learn more about our efforts: scienceimpacts.org

With more to come...

a 🧵

For 10 weeks starting in mid-July, NIH went on a tear.

They issued 23,436 grants worth $14.9 billion—5k grants & $5 billion more than the same 10 weeks in FY24.

In fiscal week 46 alone (mid-Aug), they awarded $2.1 billion in grants, nearly double their best week in FY24.

NIH staff are amazing. 🤩

But then something awesome happened.

The gov't took a short break for the 4th of July 🇺🇸. When NIH staff were done celebrating our nation's birthday, they returned with a vengeance.

Immediately after the 4th of July weekend, grant-making skyrocketed, even while the Trump admin continued to meddle.

A short story about our heroes inside NIH:

Between a Trump-imposed freeze on grant-making in Jan/Feb and new political hurdles in spring & early summer, NIH was in trouble.

By the end of June, NIH was 8,300 grants and $3.1 billion behind its FY24 pace. Morale was in the toilet. Things were bleak.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

I've never, ever seen a judicial opinion like this. 😮

SCOTUS catches all the headlines for good reason. But the vast majority of legal disputes begin and end in trial courts.

And Federal district (i.e., trial) courts are so over the Trump admin's bullshit. Exhibit 1A (pun intended) is Judge Young.

🍻🍾🎉

Side note: Gotta hand it to the student reporters at @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social. They’ve been all over this stuff for months.

Josey, Delaney, et al. (2023). Air Pollution and Mortality at the Intersection of Race and Social Class. NEJM.

We show that stronger air pollution regulations benefit all Americans, and disproportionately harmed lower income and Black Americans benefit most.

www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

The National Academies' response to the EPA's proposed removal of the endangerment finding is out today. It does not mince words about the effect of GHGs on the climate. Kudos to the authors.

Key paragraph below; you can read the whole thing here: nas.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?...

UC employees, not waiting on leaders, sue Trump for 'financial coercion' over UCLA cuts University of California faculty, students and staff on Tuesday sued President Trump over a $1.2-million penalty against UCLA and federal demands over campus changes. They argued that the actions camp...

Facing a proposed $1.2-billion fine and severe medical research grant cuts at UCLA, the University of California has not gone head-to-head with Trump in court.

So on Tuesday, groups representing more than 100,000 of its employees did.

www.latimes.com/california/s...

This is the energy we need.

As a UC employee*:
Fuck off into the sun forever with this bullshit and then continue to get fucked until you land in another sun 10 million light years from this one.

*Opinion not representative of the UC system. Unfortunately.

A court order from the United States District Court, dated September 9, 2025, in case 1:25-mc-91324-MJJ. The order grants a Motion to Quash a subpoena. Highlighted text explains the judge's reasoning: that the subpoena reflects the administration's disapproval of the transgender community, and its true purpose is to interfere with gender-affirming care in Massachusetts, harass the hospital, and intimidate patients. The judge finds the government failed to show proper purpose and that the subpoena was "motivated only by bad faith." The order is signed by Judge Myong J. Joun.

JUST IN: A judge quashed the subpoena to Boston Children's Hospital by the DoJ that sought the records of trans patients.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Y'all. The NIH NOAs are starting to flow at Harvard.

💪✊🥳

I suppose I shouldn't fault the reporters here. It's clearly something people are wondering about.

The broader point is that the way we think about legal issues has been completely upended.

And the reason, I think, is that we're collectively just much less confident in the rule of law these days.

Sure, I get it. But the question wasn’t “Given SCOTUS lawlessness, should Harvard settle?” Which might be more defensible

Instead, it was “Now that Harvard won, should Harvard settle?”

Harvard won big. Trump lost big. In a normal world, we’d be asking Trump if he should settle or cave, not Harvard

Holy hell what warped timeline are we in right now??

Harvard beat Trump in court. But I've been asked by 3 different reporters whether Harvard should settle with Trump now that it won.

Would you ask a robbery victim to hand over his wallet right after the robber was found guilty?

Come on, man. 🤦‍♂️

They keep losing in court because everything they’re doing is illegal

Same tbh. Seriously

FINALLY: Harvard [mostly] wins.

We'll see what happens next.

www.courtlistener.com/docket/69921...