NIH removes DEI requirements from grant applications
Applicants for grants are no longer mandated to submit things such as ‘Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives’ and ‘Recruitment Plans to Enhance Diversity.’
The NIH under former President Biden had a history of supporting controversial research, such as projects about ‘transgender mice.’
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has eliminated its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements for grant and conference funding applications.
The NIH is a federal agency and the “largest source of funding for medical research in the world.”
The federal agency notified employees about the changes on March 25, as Mother Jones first reported.
Those changes mean that applicants will no longer be forced to submit DEI-related material such as “Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives,” “Recruitment Plans to Enhance Diversity,” “Trainee Diversity Report[s],” and “diversity plans” for conference funding.
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The NIH’s removal of DEI from grant applications under President Donald Trump is a significant shift compared to former President Joe Biden’s administration. One unnamed employee told Mother Jones that the change “definitely reflects the priorities of an administration that doesn’t value diversity.”
As Campus Reform reported earlier this month, the NIH has a history of awarding millions of dollars for controversial projects that are associated with leftist causes. For example, the agency has spent more than $12.5 million to research so-called “transgender” mice.
The Trump administration stopped some of the funds supporting research on “transgender” mice after Campus Reform’s report.
Northwestern University also received an NIH grant for $1.3 million to study “sexual and gender minority health.” In October, the NIH awarded the City University of New York $19.3 million to found the New York Center for Minority Health, Equity and Social Justice.
The NIH also granted $2.6 million to the University of Arizona, the University of Miami, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Florida to study “Latinx queer and transgender youth.”
Other federal agencies under Biden awarded grants for similar projects. For example, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) released a report in October finding that more than 25 percent of grants given out by the National Science Foundation went to support DEI-related projects.
“In recent years, Democrat administrations have deliberately inserted political ideology into scientific investigation while cloaking their actions as an effort to uphold integrity—in other words, injecting bias while claiming to root it out,” the report says.
The Department of Health and Human Services recently ended $300 million in grant money to California universities and other groups for DEI-based projects, including research on “Buddhism and HIV Stigma in Thailand” at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Campus Reform contacted the National Institutes of Health for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.
