With billions of dollars of federal research funding cut since President Donald Trump began his second term, organizations are starting to step up to fill the gaps and keep vital science going. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is the latest to launch such an effort, pledging more than $12 million in new funds to support hematology research.
The new funding is specifically intended to “address the sudden and massive cuts to federal research grants, training opportunities and federal programs put in place by the new Administration,” the ASH announced in a June 10 release.
Part of the new funding is a nearly $9 million increase in research awards, which includes grants meant for early-career researchers as well as bridge grants meant to provide support for scientists who applied to the National Institutes of Health's (NIH’s) flagship R01 grant program but were rejected or did not have their proposals reviewed.
The investment comes as one part of ASH’s new Multifaceted Approach to Research and Regulatory Challenges to Hematology (MARRCH) program, which aims to improve networking among hematologists, fundraise for the ASH Foundation to support other research awards and spur action among ASH members, patients and the public to “protect the future of hematology research,” according to the release.
“While the bulk of our investment will go directly toward supporting researchers in the near term, we recognize that ASH alone can’t replace NIH funding,” Belinda Avalos, M.D., president of the ASH, said in the release. “That’s why we’ve also invested in enhanced advocacy and communications efforts to educate lawmakers and the public about the dire need to reinstate NIH funding and reverse policies that prevent patients with blood diseases from accessing appropriate care.”
Trump’s 2026 budget proposal recommends cutting the NIH’s funding by about 40%, including a roughly 37% reduction for the National Cancer Institute—a move that drew pushback from groups like the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Cancer Society.
NIH staff themselves have also rallied in opposition to the agency’s dramatic halting of federal funds, issuing a declaration on June 9 calling for Director Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., to restore the lost funds and rehire employees who have been laid off. Since January, the NIH has ended 2,100 research grants worth around $9.5 billion and contracts worth $2.6 billion, the declaration’s authors wrote.
Institutions in Europe, including the Netherlands’ education department and Belgium’s Free University Brussels, are working to attract talent from the U.S.’s beleaguered scientific community. In Germany, the BioMed X research institute in Heidelberg has launched a matchmaking program to connect U.S. researchers facing threatened NIH grants with potential funders.