Following the Trump administration’s funding freeze on the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 5C students are facing uncertainty as research budgets decrease across the nation.
NIH funding, a critical resource for research at universities across the country, has faced reductions since President Trump’s inauguration. Programs that involve funding for summer internships or postgraduate research have been directly affected.
Kim Rush PO ’26, a biology major aspiring to go into medicine, said she felt these impacts. Following a lengthy application process, which included acquiring letters of recommendations from professors, writing personal statements and participating in interviews, Rush had two acceptances rescinded due to a lack of funding.
One email from a summer internship program dedicated to research on HIV in transgender and non-binary populations commended her for her “thoughtfulness, dedication to health equity and demonstrated commitment to underserved populations.” But according to the email, changes to the program’s grant funding meant that it was unable to offer the financial support necessary for the interns.
Rush received a similar email from an infectious disease research program. Despite facing these setbacks, she was subsequently accepted to a summer research internship that utilizes non-governmental funding from a private donor.
Another rejection email that a 5C student received detailed specific factors that led to the cancellation of the Kidney, Urology and Hematology research program at the Yale School of Medicine.
“The NIH has yet to release the R25 funding, which has created uncertainty around the program’s ability to move forward,” the email read, adding that the program has not received information on when or if the funding will be released. According to the NIH, R25 funding is dedicated to educational projects for the purposes of biomedical research.
Citing the inability to hold the research program without the funding, as well as an indefinite travel ban instituted by the Trump administration on NIH officials, the email stated its apologies for the inconvenience to the recipient.
For recent 5C alumni, the lack of funding nationwide has also made it difficult to pursue postgraduate studies. Aly Alvey PZ ’24, a current lab technician at the Department of Natural Sciences of Pitzer and Scripps Colleges, said she faced difficulty in her PhD application process as she received rejections due to institutional funding impacts.
“It went from hearing back from lots of people, and having some sort of sense of certainty and optimism, to not hearing back,” Alvey said. “I got the sense that the admissions were in chaos from some of the colleges.”
Alvey was able to secure acceptances to programs, but she cited frustrations over the prior uncertainties she faced regarding her education.
“Things have been kind of unpredictable lately,” she said about the amount of funding institutions have the capacity to provide.
Jon Moore, an associate professor of biology and laboratory coordinator at Pomona College, detailed the impacts he has seen on graduating seniors and recent alumni. According to Moore, some alumni have been laid off from NIH jobs and current seniors have lost opportunities to pursue postgraduate education.
“It stands to reason that between all these people with some experience after college, who are now out of a job … or graduate admissions, they’re now all looking for the same job, and it’s going to be harder,” he said.
However, Moore said that he still has hope for 5C students looking for research opportunities in the sciences.
“The Claremont Colleges are generally well thought of,” he said. “In that context, even though things are not where people would like them to be … you’re going to land on your feet.”
The uncertain future of research led Rush to worry about the potential widespread impacts of a decrease in scientific investigation.
“The fact that they’re no longer prioritizing health research is deeply concerning given the fact that we just came off of a global pandemic,” she said. “We had done so much extensive infectious disease research [which] enabled us to have such a quick response. It’s looking pretty bleak.”
Alvey also speculated over the trajectory of scientific research: “It can get really hard for the general public to see academics and scientists as trustworthy … and I think we’ll really have to work very hard on having good and accessible science communication in order to combat that.”
Moore echoed these concerns over the long-term impacts of the funding cuts. “Even if this doesn’t last terribly long, this is going to have ripple effects that we are going to see down the road in American science for a very long time.”
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