Jan. 27, 2025

 

 

To: All School of Medicine faculty

 

 

Dear colleagues:

  

Below you will find an update from Senior Vice President for Research Dr. Deborah Bruner about changes in federal grant-making activity. I will continue to share updates with you as we learn more. 

 

Best, 

 

Sandra

 

Sandra L. Wong, MD, MS
Dean, Emory School of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer, Emory Healthcare

Message from Deborah Watkins Bruner, RN, PhD, FAAN, Senior Vice President for Research, Emory University

 

 

New information has been collected by our team regarding disruptions and changes in federal grant-making activity as part of the new administration’s transition. Provided below is some additional information obtained since my last communication to you on Thursday, January 23rd.   

 

NIH “Diversity Awards”  

 

NIH has set aside specific funds to encourage trainees from diverse backgrounds to pursue research careers in health-related fields. These include subsets of F31, F32, K series, R36 awards, and Diversity Supplements. These awards support an individual (often a trainee) and are usually on the scale of $50k-$100k per year for a few years. The NCI Mentored Research Scientist Development Award to Promote Diversity K01 was discontinued early in November; and the Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research was discontinued this week (on 1/24/25).  Though these funding opportunities are ending early, we have NOT YET seen early termination of existing awards made through these mechanisms. Approximately 40 trainees and early career researchers at Emory are supported by these mechanisms.  

 

NIH Workflow Disruptions 

 

Intramural staff at NIH shared that their VPN access was terminated on 1/24/25, preventing them from performing some functions remotely. Even after the communication pause is lifted, this has the potential to slow grant-making as NIH program officers and award administrators work to comply with return-to-work requirements. In addition, the pause on communication, travel, and engagement continues to be enforced. 

 

USDA 

 

All funding opportunities from U.S. Dept of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture are currently under review, pausing grant-making from this agency. This is low potential impact for Emory overall. In FY24, Emory received $223k from USDA. Unclear when grant-making will resume. 

 

DOE 

 

All funding opportunities from the Dept of Energy are currently under review, pausing grant-making from this agency. This is low potential impact for Emory overall. In FY24, Emory received $765k from DOE (mostly in ECAS). Unclear when grant-making will resume. 

 

USAID 

 

All funding opportunities from U.S. AID are paused and a stop work orders are being issued on foreign assistance. This is low potential impact for Emory overall. In FY24, Emory received $900k from USAID. As of 1/24/25, Emory has not received a stop work notice. We are monitoring this closely. 

 

We will be setting up a webpage on the research.emory.edu site this week with links to official agency and public guidance’s, funding updates and regulatory changes. We will share this site with you and then with the Emory community when it is ready.

 

Best,

 

Deb

 

DEBORAH WATKINS BRUNER, RN, PhD, FAAN

Senior Vice President for Research, Emory University