Study shows steep decline in ‘diversity’ wording in NIH grants under Trump administration
A new analysis of NIH grant abstracts found a sharp reduction in diversity-related language following President Trump’s election.
That language included 'abortion,' 'implicit bias,' 'inclusiveness,' and 'affirming care.'
A new study has revealed that “diversity language” has declined rapidly in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant awards since President Donald Trump’s election.
The report, published on Thursday, Dec. 11, by the British Medical Journal, examines 17,701 grant awards from January 2024-June 2025. President Trump took office in January 2025.
“In a text analysis of abstracts of new NIH grant awards, we found a decrease in the prevalence of words reflecting diversity language since the 2024 US presidential election,” the study finds. “Our analysis directionally agrees with findings of news reports, which broadly suggest greater scrutiny of research pertaining to diversity, equity, and other topics of political interest.”
Diversity wording “decreased sharply between October and November 2024, from 11.11 to 5.42 words per 1000, a 51% relative decrease,” the study finds. “The decrease persisted through 2025, with an overall relative decrease of 25% between January 2024 and June 2025.”
The authors used a list of about 240 terms drawn from prior news reporting and advocacy reporting, and included the complete list in a supplementary appendix.
Those terms included “abortion,” “implicit bias,” “activism,” “inclusiveness,” “affirming care,” “allyship,” “anti-racism,” “assigned at birth,” “intersectionality,” “latinx,” “nonbinary,” “pregnant people,” “pronouns,” “race,” “stereotypes,” “they/them,” “feminism,” “transgender,” “unconscious bias,” “gender based,” “gender identity,” “hate speech,” and “identity.”
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Campus Reform has reported many examples of government agencies targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)-based grants since President Trump took office.
The NIH eliminated DEI requirements for grants in April, removing application sections for “Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives,” “Recruitment Plans to Enhance Diversity,” and “Trainee Diversity Report[s].”
In March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cut $330 million for DEI-based grants, including “Buddhism and HIV Stigma in Thailand,” “Structural Racism and Discrimination in Older Men’s Health Inequities,” and a study on “[s]ex hormone effects on neurodevelopment” and “[c]ontrolled puberty in transgender adolescents.”
The administration eliminated funding for a study on “transgender mice” in March, following Campus Reform reporting. The NIH canceled $12.6 million for grants at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, including one on “gender identity.”
“Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans,” the NIH explained.
Campus Reform contacted the National Institutes of Health for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
