AAU joined 4 other associations in sending a letter to Dr. Bhattacharya at the NIH to reinstate the grants that have been "terminated under agency directives found by a federal court to be unlawful."
Dear Dr. Bhattacharya,
The undersigned higher education associationsi represent the academic institutions that conduct the vast majority of biomedical research funded by the United States government through the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We appreciate the remarks you have made to our constituents and to the biomedical research community more broadly expressing your commitment to science, your pledge to ensure the awarding of all appropriated NIH funds, and your deep concern for early career scientists. We write today to respectfully request that, in the spirit of fairness and consistency, you direct the reinstatement of all grants that NIH has terminated under agency directives found by a federal court to be unlawful.
As you are aware, a United States District Court in the District of Massachusetts recently vacated the Department of Health and Human Services and NIH directives that resulted in the termination of approximately 900 NIH grants listed in court filings related to two lawsuits challenging those directives.1 The court found that the listed research projects and hundreds of others were improperly halted through a mass termination effort without any individualized review. These terminations stopped clinical trials, delayed or curtailed the careers of research trainees and established scientists alike, and ended projects into which the government has already invested significant resources without allowing the further needed results to advance our scientific knowledge.
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit declined to issue a stay of the district court’s decision, which means the reinstatement of terminated grants specifically included in lists prepared by the plaintiffs in the two cases will continue. However, the order of the district court is limited, and there remain a considerable number of terminated grants that will not be reinstated under that order, despite those grants having been terminated pursuant to the same directives, using the same process, and according to the same termination rationale. There is no meaningful difference between the grants that are now being reinstated by the NIH in response to the courts’ orders and those grants that remain terminated. We therefore request that you consider immediately reinstating every grant that was terminated under one of the rationales found by the District Court to be unlawful, which would provide relief regardless of geographic area or institution.
We are mindful that many of these termination letters were delivered or in the process of being prepared prior to your confirmation as NIH Director, but we submit that you now have an opportunity to extend the reinstatement activities NIH is currently undertaking to all grants terminated following directives the court found to be unlawful. Taking this action would demonstrate your commitment to the importance of maintaining federally funded research programs and research careers and would allow the agency to take a more thoughtful approach to determining the individual scientific merits and progress of these hundreds of research projects.
We remain committed to working with you toward advancing scientific progress through predictable and robust federal funding of research and to the success of the NIH as the global leader in supporting biomedical research. If you have any questions regarding this letter or would like assistance in identifying the remaining relevant grants that were not listed in the current cases, do not hesitate to reach out to any of our organizations.
David J. Skorton, MD
President & CEO
Association of American Medical Colleges
Barbara R. Snyder
President
Association of American Universities
Ted Mitchell
President
American Council on Education
Matt Owens
President
COGR
Waded Cruzado
President
Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities
i The AAMC is a nonprofit association dedicated to improving the health of people everywhere through medical education, clinical care, biomedical research, and community collaborations. Its members are all 160 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education; 13 Canadian medical schools accredited by the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools; nearly 500 academic health systems and teaching hospitals, including Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 70 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC leads and serves America’s medical schools, academic health systems and teaching hospitals, and the millions of individuals across academic medicine, including more than 210,000 full-time faculty members, 99,000 medical students, 162,000 resident physicians, and 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.
The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of 71 leading U.S. and Canadian public and private research universities on the leading edge of innovation, scholarship, and solutions that contribute to scientific progress, economic development, security, and well-being.
The American Council on Education (ACE) is the major coordinating body for American higher education. It's more than 1,600 members reflect the extraordinary breadth and contributions of four-year, two-year, public and private colleges and universities. ACE members educate two out of every three students in accredited, degree-granting U.S. institutions.
The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) is a membership organization that fosters a community of university leaders collectively working to advance the mission of public research universities. The association’s U.S membership consists of more than 240 public research universities, land-grant institutions, state university systems, and affiliated organizations spanning across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and six U.S. territories. The association and its members collectively focus on increasing student success and workforce readiness; promoting pathbreaking scientific research; and bolstering economic and community engagement. Annually, its U.S. member campuses enroll 4.4 million undergraduates and 1.4 million graduate students, award 1.3 million degrees, employ 1.2 million faculty and staff, and conduct $64 billion in university- based research.
COGR is the national authority on federal policies and regulations affecting U.S. research institutions. We provide a unified voice for over 230 research universities and affiliated academic medical centers and research institutes. Our work strengthens the research partnership between the federal government and research institutions and furthers the frontiers of science, technology, and knowledge. We advocate for effective and efficient research policies and regulations that maximize and safeguard research investments and minimize administrative and cost burdens.
1Am. Pub. Health Ass’n v. Nat’l Institutes of Health, No. CV 25-10787-WGY, 2025 WL 1822487 (D. Mass. July 2, 2025).