Some of the University of Utah researchers had been studying how best to care for critically ill babies in rural communities. Others were focused on reducing the disproportionately high rates of skin cancer in those same remote areas.
Additional projects were researching brain injuries in combat veterans, how cancer affects those living in poverty and why cardiovascular disease is more prevalent among Black individuals.
But the majority of the funding for that work is now cut — “effective immediately,” according to the notice of termination from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The U. received a letter earlier this month that the main federal grant supporting that groundbreaking research and its overarching Utah Clinical and Translational Science Institute on campus would be pulled because the work “no longer effectuates agency priorities” and “no modification” of the program could address that.
The reason? The projects from the institute all looked at the health disparities and inequities among specific communities. “So-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race,” the notice stated.
The U.’s latest grant proposal for the institute and its research used that language, saying the hope was to “increase science equity and health equity” in the West among many populations — but primarily those in rural and hard-to-reach places, tucked in the mountains and deserts of the region.
“We will create a novel model and ecosystem for engaging stakeholders who experience health disparities, including underserved racial/ethnic populations, senior citizens, members of the LGBTQ+ communities and rural/frontier residents,” the application said.
The school was granted $38 million for the work in 2023 as part of a seven-year award. It has received about $11 million of that in the first two years.
It’s now on the list of more than 300 grants canceled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health for being DEI-related as President Trump pushes to gut those initiatives in higher education — and in other efforts nationwide.
Emily Hillard, a spokesperson for the federal health department, told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday that the agency wants to return to the “tradition of upholding gold-standard, evidence-based science.”
“It’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans,” she added in an email. “We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again,” a variation of Trump’s “Make American Great Again” campaign slogan.
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The termination is the latest from the president to target and cut research, with a previous move to reduce how much universities could receive to cover overhead costs, such as for equipment and building maintenance. That cut has been paused under a temporary restraining order from a federal judge.
The U. is supporting the fight against that reduction, which would cost the state’s flagship school roughly $43 million in funding. It’s also now hired a law firm to appeal the latest grant cut for the institute’s studies on health.
“This is a critical infrastructure grant for the University of Utah,” said Erin Rothwell, the vice president for research at the U. during an online discussion with faculty Tuesday.
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute supports research that covers five states. And it manages a major biorepository — where samples of tissue, blood and DNA are stored for research — that includes 557,000 specimens.
Researchers and physicians conduct hundreds of clinical trials there, too. Last year, those included nearly 7,000 patients hoping to find a cure.
U. looks at ‘bridge funding’
The institute will not immediately shut down due to the funding cut, said Julie Kiefer, the U.’s spokesperson for research. But pulling the grant threatens how long the institute can continue its research into the future, which is why the school is appealing it.
The U.’s clinical institute has existed since 1965, when it was originally funded by the National Institutes of Health. A national effort in 2008 under the National Center for Advancing Translational Science to fund similar work at universities across the country boosted the Utah center, and it has led research in the West since then.
It’s now one of 60 institutes in the country focused on translational science, which aims to directly apply research from laboratory work to the bedside of patients by overcoming barriers that might prevent care.
Kiefer said the institute currently receives six grants. The largest of those was terminated by the Trump administration. The school will continue to operate on $14 million in grants that remain online at this point.
U. President Taylor Randall told faculty Tuesday during the online discussion that he is working with the state’s federal congressional delegation so they “understand what’s at stake” in cutting research funding for research institutions. So far, he said, they’ve been receptive.
“There’s enough uncertainty that we’re going to have to work together to be very, very creative,” he said.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) University of Utah President Taylor Randall makes an announcement at the Utah Aerospace and Industry event on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023.
Randall has previously said that despite the pending research cuts, the U. would continue to fully fund its operations through other sources — promising no layoffs or impact to graduate school admissions. The clinical institute has 60 full-time employees and additional faculty that help support its mission.
On Tuesday, Randall again mentioned “bridge funding” to get the school through at least the next year.
“That’s not going to be a great long term strategy, depending on the scenarios that emerge,” he said.
For now, Rothwell said other sources of research funding have held steady, and the U. is on track to meet the same levels this fiscal year as last, when the school brought in $691 million.
But the research at the institute, Randall said, is critical not only to Utah or the West but to the nation and the world. “Take a look at the many, many successes this university has had,” Randall added.
Health disparities in Utah
The institute’s focus on health disparities is not new — it’s widely understood that health outcomes are worse for people of color, for instance, and that members of the LGBTQ community often have a harder time accessing care.
That scientific lens was endorsed by the previous President Joe Biden’s administration and is now being overturned by Trump. But it’s not discounted by all Republicans.
Utah’s GOP Gov. Spencer Cox spoke about it last week during the announcement of a new donation for the construction of a U. hospital in West Valley City. That west-side Salt Lake County community has a majority of residents who are individuals of color. And the data shows that their health outcomes are worse.
Cox cited a statistic that those living in West Valley City’s zip codes have a life expectancy that is 10 years shorter than those in the wealthier part of Salt Lake City, around the University of Utah.
“I became obsessed with the health disparities in our state,” Cox said, noting that focus started when he was lieutenant governor. “I couldn’t believe that was happening here.”
At the same time, though, Cox has supported unrolling DEI initiatives in Utah, signing onto a bill last year from the state Legislature to dismantle programs in higher education, K-12 and government offices.
An email request to his office for comment on this story went unreturned.
West Valley City is about a 30 minute drive from the U.’s main hospital, meaning the disparity exists even at a short distance.
The U. says it’s worse for those in rural parts of the state, which is why its research was focused there. In an initial new release about the institute’s $38 million grant, the school wrote:
“Often, it is difficult for rural individuals to travel to medical centers where clinical trials are conducted. Even when some study procedures can be performed virtually, participants still need to have blood for the research study drawn in person.”
The institute was working to set up more clinical trials in isolated communities and provide more medical services for those who are harder to reach.
Health disparities also exist for almost every minority identity and across most every illness — including maternal mortality and opioid abuse. With the COVID-19 pandemic, initial Utah data showed the virus was more lethal and spread far faster among communities of color — with minorities being infected, hospitalized and killed at higher rates per capita than the state’s predominantly white population. For some communities, the risk was doubled.
The U.’s institute was looking at all of those, as well as suicide rates, valley fever and bipolar disorder. The school was partnering, too, with Intermountain Health and Salt Lake City’s V.A. hospital.
The U. also received notification of a second grant being terminated, but details of that were not immediately available. The school only said that it’s an R25 award, meaning it was focused on research education and training.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) A mass spectrometer at the University of Utah processes coral materials on Thursday, June 9, 2022, to be analyzed in the first step towards determining its usefulness in treating cancer. A team of researchers have found a potential anticancer compound found in coral.
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