The Trump administration issued an order on 27 January freezing payment on all federal grants and loans, but lawsuits challenging its legality were filed soon after, placing the order on hold. The fact that payments still aren’t going out because Trump’s team has halted grant-review meetings is exploiting a “loophole” in the process…

To further complicate grant-review efforts, the Trump administration laid off more than 1,100 employees at the NIH in the past week, representing about 6% of the agency’s workforce. Many of these workers were programme officers, grant-management specialists and scientific-review officers who help to screen grant applications, conduct grant reviews and perform oversight on the 60,000 funding awards the agency issues each year.

The scientific review officer said he could describe the impact of these layoffs on the agency’s ability to review grant applications and fund research in two words: “We’re fucked.”

This is the first time I’ve seen scientist swear on an official news interview btw.

Try this link if there is soft paywall: https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00540-2