Legal Actions Yield Positive Results for NIH Grantees

By: Yvette Seger
Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Throughout 2025, the research community relied on legal actions to combat administrative directives to eliminate federally supported grants and programs perceived as furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A recent settlement indicates that these efforts are working.

On December 29, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) agreed to review grant applications that were frozen, denied, or withdrawn based on administration directives using the agency’s standard peer review process. The settlement requires the agency to make decisions on affected grants on a rolling timeline, with all reviews completed by July 31, 2026. Decisions on non-competing renewals were issued on the same day as the settlement, with 499 of 528 grants approved in a case led by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office and another 135 of 146 grants approved in a case spearheaded by the American Civil Liberties Union. Decisions on grants already reviewed by study sections must be made by January 12.

Legal actions also continue to be effective against the administration’s efforts to implement a 15 percent cap on Facilities and Administration (F&A) costs on federal research grants. On January 5, a three-judge panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a U.S. District Court decision to block implementation of an NIH policy that would have applied a flat, 15 percent F&A rate to all grants effective 48 hours after issuance on February 7, 2025. It is unclear whether the administration will file an appeal for the case to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.