(Iowa City, Iowa) – The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports National Institutes of Health grant terminations hit the University of Iowa the hardest, out of the dozens of universities housed in the state this summer. The Dispatch says that’s according to a national project working to compile grant dollars that have been frozen or canceled entirely as President Donald Trump and his administration seek to end federal funding for certain research. There are eight National Institutes of Health grants identified by Grant Witness to have seen termination in Iowa, with only one seeing possible reinstatement. They run the gamut of research — from cancer to cochlear implants, Alzheimer’s to vaccine messaging, genomes to access to research careers.

Many of the projects were multiple years into their work before facing termination, having already received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of grant funds.The longest-running project to see its funding terminated has received federal funding since 2013, according to USAspending, an open data source tracking federal spending. The study was set to run through a portion of 2028 and receive a total of $5.7 million, but funding was canceled in May and the project reportedly ended in July.

Researchers at the University of Iowa saw federal funding for their research cut this year, in medical and other areas. (Photo courtesy of University of Iowa)

According to the project summary reported by NIH, the canceled study was looking into using different materials on the surfaces of cochlear implants — a surgically implanted device to aid people with severe hearing impairment — in order to reduce bacteria and lower the risk of infection and other issues. A UI program aimed at increasing research accessibility also saw its federal grant terminated this year. Other canceled medical research included one study diving into potential therapies for people with early Alzheimer’s disease and another studying new therapies for those dealing with triple-negative breast cancer, which the project summary stated is the only type of breast cancer with no targeted therapy. University of Iowa researchers were also studying responses to a certain therapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Two of the terminated grants provided funding to studies diving into topics the Trump administration has spoken about previously, namely vaccines and rural health care.

The only grant to have been possibly reinstated, deals with differences in polygenic scores based on sex. Research into polygenic scores has traditionally left out groups like gender minorities, according to the description, and the study seeks to close the gap by developing a new method for study of sex-related differences for both genomic and general research. Its end date is slated in the award summary for July 31, 2026, with $1.4 million of the $1.6 million obligated amount processed.

The grant was ruled to be reinstated this summer according to Grant Witness’s data, but the organization states on its website grants under this category are being listed as “possibly reinstated” because its members do not know what the reinstatement process will look like or how long it will take