Scientists sue NIH over grant screening by terms — STAT News
In the United States, a group of researchers has filed a lawsuit against the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), arguing that the agency violated their right to freedom of speech when making decisions on grant funding. As STAT News reports, the plaintiffs are challenging the screening of grant applications and active grants for certain words and phrases.
Plaintiffs’ demands
The lawsuit was filed by 13 scientists named in the case materials, as well as four anonymous researchers. They seek to halt the search for specified terms in applications and active grants, which is used to determine whether an application should be rejected.
The case was filed as a class action lawsuit. If the court supports the plaintiffs, the decision could apply not only to the 17 scientists involved in the case, but also to other researchers whose work was affected by searches for such terms.
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Screening topics
According to the outlet, the screening largely concerned grants on topics not supported by the Trump administration. These include initiatives to diversify the scientific workforce, research into health disparities, climate change, and vaccines.
After Trump returned to office, his administration began terminating funding for a significant number of biomedical studies it considered inconsistent with its priorities. Hundreds of grants were later reinstated following a ruling by a federal judge, who found that the way funding was terminated violated the US Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how government agencies change policy.
