The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is rolling out rules that block new grants for any researcher or institution advancing programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The new rule also prohibits grant recipients from participating in boycotts against Israel, which includes cutting off or limiting commercial activity with Israeli companies.
The new “Civils Rights term” applies to all current terms and conditions for NIH grants, according to an April 21 notice.
The mandate overrules Section 4.1.2 “Civil Rights Protections” of the NIH Grants Policy Statement, which includes the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 and limited English proficiency, according to the notice.
Under the new terms, researchers who accept an NIH grant agree they won’t use the funding for any programs that “advance or promote” DEI, accessibility or “discriminatory equity ideology” at the risk of violating the Trump administration’s anti-discrimination laws.
During the duration of the award, the grant recipient also can’t participate in any “discriminatory prohibited boycott” against Israel. Israel has been targeted by the global Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement for decades due to the country’s “entrenched system of racial discrimination against its own Arab-Palestinian citizens,” according to the movement's website.
If grant recipients do promote DEI or partake in a prohibited boycott, the NIH reserves the right to rescind the award and recover all funds, according to the release.
As of publication, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had not responded to Fierce Biotech’s request for comment.
The new rules follow earlier efforts by the NIH to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI order. The agency recently removed several DEI requirements from funding opportunities, including Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives, diversity plans for conference grants and recruitment plans to enhance diversity in training grant applications, according to a government webpage last updated March 31.
The Trump administration has been taking aim at alleged antisemitism since Trump’s second term began. In March, the Department of Education warned 60 universities of “potential enforcement actions” if the universities didn’t “fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.” This in turn led to grants being frozen to major schools like Harvard University, Princeton University and Columbia University.
At the beginning of the month, the American Public Health Association and several researchers sued the NIH and the HHS—plus respective leaders Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—in an effort to reverse and prevent further cancellations of federal research grants.
The cuts include $1.1 billion in funds the plaintiffs claim has been illegally revoked.
“To exclude from consideration in human medicine the health outcome disparities between one ethnicity or the other, or one sexual orientation or the other, is to strike at the heart of the scientific enterprise,” plaintiff Peter Lurie, M.D., president of nonprofit the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said in an April 2 release. “This will have devastating consequences for those relying on government progress on HIV, Alzheimer’s, diabetes or other public health challenges, if not reversed by the courts.”