NIH Funding Lawsuit Halts Over 4,000 Research Projects Nationwide

“This isn’t just illegal, it hurts every person served by this research and unravels years of work by the scientific community,” Shalini Goel Agarwal, special counsel at Protect Democracy, said.

More than 4,000 research projects were canceled amid a legal challenge to NIH funding policies.

Seventeen researchers filed a class action lawsuit accusing the National Institutes of Health of allegedly unconstitutionally blocking grants that contradict the Trump administration’s views on gender identity and climate change. This case could reshape how federal funding priorities intersect with free speech in biomedical research.

The suit, filed September 16 in a California federal court, alleges NIH used a list of 235 keywords to screen and terminate projects expressing disfavored viewpoints, resulting in more than 4,000 canceled clinical trials, training programs, and research projects. Over 1,000 grants at the University of California were reportedly revoked through these keyword filters. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya denies a banned word list’s existence but acknowledges the use of tools intended to identify politicized diversity, equity, and inclusion research. The complaint alleges that viewpoint-based terminations resumed after a slowdown in fall 2025.

Litigation is pending, with NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services declining to comment.

Montana researchers and institutions could face similar challenges if federal funding agencies adopt comparable screening practices, potentially influencing the state’s scientific landscape. Given Montana’s emphasis on independent inquiry and resource-based industries, any politicization of grant decisions may affect local research priorities and innovation incentives.

Researchers say NIH grant screening process violates First Amendment
By BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY