Two federal research grants worth $1.2 million for the University of Pittsburgh have been canceled, joining hundreds of National Institutes of Health grants to institutions nationwide that have been terminated in the past month.
Erika E. Forbes, professor of psychiatry, pediatrics and psychology, and Jennifer Silk, professor of psychology, who had been investigating suicide vulnerability among LGBTQ people ages 18 to 30, learned on March 10 that they had lost their funding.
The pair received a grant of $759,447 in 2024 and $2.92 million since 2021 to study risk factors for suicide in this group. Ten researchers at Pitt and other institutions were aiding Ms. Forbes and Ms. Silk in the study.
Several days after that grant was cut, Kar-Hai Chu, associate professor in Pitt’s School of Public Health, learned on March 20 that his project had lost funding. He was researching vaccine consent laws affecting minors and potential interventions to improve vaccine use.
He was awarded $633,148 last year for the work, $455,717 of which was to be issued in 2025.
Mr. Chu and Ms. Forbes were not available for comment Tuesday, but Ms. Silk — saying she was speaking for herself and not for the university — called the funding cut “particularly devastating.”
“This is particularly devastating at a time when we need this research more than ever,” she said, citing a recent survey that found that 41% of LGBTQ young people seriously considered suicide in 2023 and 14% actually made an attempt at ending their life.
“It is likely that these rates will continue to increase given current policies that further marginalize young people with LGBTQ identities,” she said. “In fact, defunding research that aims to prevent suicide among LGBTQ young people may send a message to them that their lives do not matter.”
NIH is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Asked about the recent grant cuts, the department said in a statement Tuesday that it was “taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities.”
“At HHS, we are dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science,” spokeswoman Emily G. Hilliard said in an emailed statement. “As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans.”
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has made deep and wide-ranging funding cuts at various government agencies. Mr. Chu’s grant involved the reasons for vaccine hesitancy at a time when cases of measles in the U.S. are soaring. Ms. Forbes and Ms. Silk’s research involved people who identify as LGBTQ at a time when Trump has been aggressively rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Among the moves that have impacted Pittsburgh was the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which cost the University of Pittsburgh a $25.5 million grant.
Under the direction of Sharon Hillier, a professor of reproductive infectious disease and vice chair for faculty affairs, the Pitt School of Medicine was using the money to study products that protect against sexually transmitted HIV in young women, gay men, transgender women and other groups. Ms. Hillier said the loss of the grant cost 30 lab workers their jobs.
University officials have declined to comment on whether other Pitt grants have been affected by government cost-cutting beyond those at the National Institutes of Health.
Research and contract grants, including NIH funding, comprised 37.5% or $1.2 billion of the university’s $3.2 billion operating budget last year. Nearly 30,000 students were enrolled in the fall.
In the face of the new administration’s rapid moves to trim government funding seen as unneeded and to otherwise redirect federal priorities — decisions that have widely impacted numerous universities around the country — Pitt recently instituted a hiring freeze.
Jeremy Berg, a former director of the National Institute of General National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH, said he believed the number of NIH grants that have been terminated nationally may be as high as 1,000.
He said grant recipients that have been rejected can appeal the termination, but the procedure was unclear.
“I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘We’re spending too much on cancer research,’ or ‘We’re spending too much on Alzheimer’s research,’ ” said Mr. Berg, who is the founding director of Pitt’s Institute for Precision Medicine, adding that he was not speaking for the university.
“I don’t understand the rationale, I don’t understand the politics.”
First Published: March 25, 2025, 11:26 p.m.
Updated: March 26, 2025, 7:54 p.m.
