Rachael Sirianni, PhD

Deep dive into the forced leave of Dr. Jenna Norton from her position has a Program Director at NIH. Why this matters, and what you can do: theprincipledinvestigator.substack.com/p/deeper-div...

The Principled Investigator - November 21, 2025 Weekly digest

This week's news digest for extramural investigators theprincipledinvestigator.substack.com/p/the-princi...

Great discussion RE changes to student loan eligibility www.facebook.com/share/v/1BeY...

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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Stop holding cancer patients hostage in campus controversies | Op-Ed The Trump administration's withholding of federal funding for universities it disagrees is hurting vital, lifesaving research.

"I am dying of cancer. To add insult to personal tragedy, my country’s government has decided to use my illness and that of so many other cancer patients as leverage in the current administration’s battle against higher education." www.seattletimes.com/opinion/stop...

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/stop...

www.seattletimes.com/opinion/stop...

Stop holding cancer patients hostage in campus controversies | Op-Ed The Trump administration's withholding of federal funding for universities it disagrees is hurting vital, lifesaving research.

"Don’t make my life and the lives of so many other cancer patients, along with the research programs we depend on, collateral damage." www.seattletimes.com/opinion/stop...

This is a travesty, eliminating #PublicHealth loans for PT, OT, MPH, DrPH and many other degrees. They are trying to kill us.

Make some noise, people. Share this. Comment on it. Tell others today, right now. Family, friends, colleagues, social media, news outlets, the legislature, make the noise. This is our task: to ensure the American public understands how far down authoritarian rule we’ve actually gotten

N.I.H. Worker Who Criticized Trump Health Policies Says She Is on Administrative Leave

“An HHS official [] described Dr. Norton as a radical leftist and said she was put on leave because she was criticizing the administration when she was supposed to be working” So, the fed govt openly eliminates ppl for their personal beliefs, got it www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/u...

Never have you seen a 30th %ile get picked up. But I’ve seen an impact score range of 2-5 shift to 2-3, etc, and those are the grants that get funded. The idea that we can pre-triage 66% of apps is just bonkers. 1st stage of review is not that accurate, takes discussion to sort wheat from the chaff

teams that could have made revisions to build fundable applications will never get the chance to be mentored and grow because this administration hates knowledge

this is how we never end cancer

this is how we never end HIV

this is how we never end any fucking thing except ourselves

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Holy crap. They're triaging 2 out of 3 applications that are submitted. 2 out of every 3 applications will not even have a chance for discussion.

Make this go far

I can further confirm that @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social is experiencing retaliation by “Free speech” Jay and the Trump administration.

@standupforscience.bsky.social stands with her and will continue to support public servants who speak out against the harms of this administration.

This is an important explainer about one of the many ways that this administration is destroying NIH. Meritocracy? We are watching it go away. And what’s being done at NIH is just one example of the ongoing, lawless destruction of American democracy

Who is Jenna Norton? Jenna is a friend + program officer who chose to speak, in her personal capacity, about the destruction going on at NIH. She was just placed on administrative leave; no reason was provided. Free speech? Not in this country anymore www.instagram.com/reel/DRA3e8-...

Weird thing happening where I + my colleagues, same convo on repeat: can't think about next year, next month, even next week. All I can do is wait for the next days or next hrs, close projects, write more grants that wont save us, sit in misery. This is what the fed govt is doing to science

Why is there no hope for labs like mine? Because I have to pay people's salaries. I can't produce that $ out of thing air. I've put in an ungodly amt of work getting grants in, but even if things got better tomorrow, those grants simply wont arrive in time

Unreal, the impact this is having on scientists. I spent over 700 hrs writing 4 grants submitted Apr-Sept that *might* have been funded next Apr; 2 abt to be 3 apps missed review bc of shutdown. In normal times takes 9-24 mo to get a grant funded. No hope for labs like mine. Literally no hope.

Donald Trump just said he'll ask the Supreme Court to freeze SNAP payments AGAIN.

His message to the 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP? Eat dirt.

In SNAP appeal, Trump administration says it faces more harm than people who can't buy food: ANALYSIS The Trump administration is appealing a federal judge's requirement that it make full November SNAP payments.

Have to read it to believe it. "The opening sentence asserts that 'the district court's order threatens significant and irreparable harm to the government which outweighs any claimed injury to plaintiffs' " abcnews.go.com/US/snap-appe...

Sigh. NIH normally sends several hundred scientists to the SFN annual meeting to learn, exchange info, come up with new ideas, and advance science. (The exchange of ideas is the very core of the scientific enterprise.)

This year, no one from NIH will attend due to the gov't implosion.

I can’t believe that these two headlines actually co-exist, that we now live in a country where the federal government MAKES PEOPLE GO HUNGRY to score partisan leverage

With a title from w-h dot gov that says “Democrats are to blame for airport chaos”, I guess we just don’t even pretend to care about the Hatch act??

This is a great substack to check out. It's a weekly digest summarizing faculty-relevant news RE continued attacks on higher education and federal funding agencies + the general chaos

These substantial donations reveal a simple truth: billionaires and corporations have the financial means to support higher taxes.