Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has secured an agreement with the Trump administration that will restart the review of delayed National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant applications, ending months of uncertainty for medical and public health researchers across the country.
The settlement, announced Tuesday, resolves a lawsuit led by Campbell and a coalition of 16 state attorneys general challenging what they described as unlawful and intentional delays by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in reviewing NIH grant proposals. Under the agreement, HHS will resume the standard review process for grant applications on a prompt, agreed-upon timeline.
Campbell said the delays had frozen critical research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s and cancer, placing lives at risk and disrupting research institutions nationwide.
“When the Trump Administration unlawfully stalled the review process for NIH grant applications, lifesaving studies were frozen indefinitely,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. “This agreement ensures that critical medical research projects are able to continue.”
“Maryland researchers and institutions have waited far too long for answers on hundreds of grant applications unlawfully delayed by the Trump administration,” said Maryland Attorney General Brown. “This settlement finally provides the certainty they need to continue groundbreaking medical research and public health work that benefits Maryland families.”
“I am pleased that the Trump Administration has agreed to stop delaying the review process for NIH grants. That, of course, should have never happened in the first place, and it’s why my fellow attorneys general and I took the Administration to court earlier this year,” said California Attorney General Bonta. “Going forward, we remain committed to ensuring HHS fulfills its obligations under the agreement.”
NIH grants typically undergo multiple rounds of review by expert panels and agency officials. Earlier this year, however, the administration canceled scheduled review meetings, delayed future meetings, and withheld final decisions on applications that had already cleared review panels. As a result, states said they were left waiting on decisions involving billions of dollars in potential research funding.
The lawsuit detailed significant impacts on public universities, including the University of Massachusetts. At the time the suit was filed, UMass had 353 NIH grant applications stuck in the delayed review process, representing millions of dollars in potential funding. One stalled project focused on a gene linked to Alzheimer’s disease and was expected to begin in April 2025, but was put on hold after the NIH delayed its advisory council review meeting.
The funding uncertainty also had broader consequences. UMass Amherst reduced its fall 2025 doctoral admissions from 997 students to 712 and rescinded financial awards from many admitted students due to concerns about ongoing research funding.
The settlement builds on an earlier court victory for the states, which successfully challenged Trump administration directives that targeted NIH-funded projects based on their perceived connection to topics such as diversity, equity and inclusion, transgender issues, and vaccine hesitancy. A federal district court set aside those directives, and a hearing on the federal government’s appeal is scheduled for Jan. 6, 2026. Under the new agreement, NIH is barred from applying those directives when reviewing new grant applications.
Attorneys general from Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin joined Massachusetts in the settlement.
State officials said the agreement clears the way for stalled research to move forward, supporting medical innovation, academic institutions and research-related jobs nationwide.
