This spring, the National Institutes of Health quietly began terminating programs at scores of colleges that prepared promising undergraduate and graduate students for doctoral degrees in the sciences.
At least 24 University of California and California State University campuses lost training grants that provided their students with annual stipends of approximately $12,000 or more, as well as partial tuition waivers and travel funds to present research at science conferences. The number of affected programs is likely higher, as the NIH would not provide CalMatters a list of all the cancelled grants.
Cal State San Marcos, a campus in north San Diego County with a high number of low-income learners, is losing four training grants worth. One of the grants, now called U-RISE, had been awarded to San Marcos annually . San Marcos students with U-RISE stipends were often able to forgo part-time jobs, which allowed them to concentrate on research and building the skills needed for a doctoral degree.
The cuts add to the hundreds of millions of dollars of grants the agency has cancelled since President Donald Trump .
To find California campuses that lost training grants, CalMatters looked up in the NIH search tool to see if those grants were still active. If the grant鈥檚 award number leads to a broken link, that grant is dead, a .
The NIH web pages for the grants CalMatters looked up, including , are no longer accessible. Some campuses, including , , and , have updated their own websites to state that the NIH has ended doctoral pathway grants.
鈥淲e鈥檙e losing an entire generation of scholars who wouldn鈥檛 have otherwise gone down these pathways without these types of programs,鈥� said Richard Armenta, a professor of kinesiology at San Marcos and the associate director of the campus鈥檚 Center for Training, Research, and Educational Excellence that operates the training grants.
At San Marcos, 60 students who were admitted into the center lost grants with stipends, partial tuition waivers and money to travel to scientific conferences to present their findings.
From loving biology to wanting a doctoral degree
Before the NIH terminations, Marisa Mendoza, a San Marcos undergraduate, received two training grants. As far back as middle school, Mendoza鈥檚 favorite subjects were biology and chemistry.
To save money, she attended Palomar College, a nearby community college where she began to train as a nurse. She chose that major because it would allow her to focus on the science subjects she loved. But soon Mendoza realized she wanted to do research rather than treat patients.
At Palomar, an anatomy professor introduced her to the NIH-funded Bridges to the Baccalaureate, a training grant for community college students to earn a bachelor鈥檚 and pursue advanced degrees in science and medicine.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even know what grad school was at the time,鈥� she said. Neither of her parents finished college.
The Bridges program connected her to Cal State San Marcos, where she toured different labs to find the right fit. At the time she was in a microbiology course and found a lab focused on bacteria populations in the nearby coastal enclaves. The lab was putting into practice what she was learning in the abstract. She was hooked.
鈥淚t just clicked, like me being able to do this, it came very easily to me, and it was just something that I came to be very passionate about as I was getting more responsibility in the lab,鈥� Mendoza said.
From Palomar she was admitted as a transfer student to San Marcos and more selective campuses, including UCLA and UC San Diego. She chose San Marcos, partly to live at home but also because she loved her lab and wanted to continue her research.
She enrolled at San Marcos last fall and furthered her doctoral journey by receiving the U-RISE grant. It was supposed to fund her for two years. The NIH terminated the grant March 31, stripping funds from 20 students.
For a school like San Marcos, where more than 40% of students are low-income enough to receive federal financial aid called Pell grants, the loss of the NIH training awards is a particular blow to the aspiring scientists.
The current climate of doctoral admissions is 鈥渄efinitely at a point where one needs prior research experience to be able to be competitive for Ph.D. programs,鈥� said Elinne Becket, a professor of biological sciences at Cal State San Marcos where Mendoza and other students hone their research for about 15 hours a week.
San Marcos doesn鈥檛 have much money to replace its lost grants, which means current and future San Marcos students will 鈥�100%鈥� have a harder time entering a doctoral program, Becket added. 鈥淚t keeps me up at night.鈥�
Research is 鈥榓 missing piece鈥�
In a typical week in Becket鈥檚 lab, Mendoza will drive to a nearby wetland or cove to retrieve water samples 鈥� part of an ongoing experiment to investigate how microbial changes in the ecosystem are indications of increased pollution in sea life and plants. Sometimes she鈥檒l wear a wetsuit and wade into waters a meter deep.
The next day she鈥檒l extract the DNA from bacteria in her samples and load those into a sequencing machine. The sequencer, which resembles a small dishwasher, packs millions or billions of pieces of DNA onto a single chip that鈥檚 then run through a supercomputer a former graduate student built.
鈥淥nce I found research, it was like a missing piece,鈥� Mendoza, a Pell grant recipient, said through tears during an interview at Cal State Marcos. Research brought her joy and consumed her life 鈥渋n the best way,鈥� she added. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really unfortunate that people who are so deserving of these opportunities don鈥檛 get to have these opportunities.鈥�
The origins of the San Marcos training center date back to 2002. Through it, more than 160 students have either earned or are currently pursuing doctoral degrees at a U.S. university.
The grant terminations have been emotionally wrenching. 鈥淭here had been so many tears in my household that my husband got me a puppy,鈥� said Denise Garcia, the director of the center and a professor of biological sciences.
Garcia recalls that in March she was checking a digital chat group on Slack with many other directors of U-RISE grants when suddenly the message board lit up with updates that their grants were gone. At least 63 schools across the country , NIH data show.
In the past four years of its U-RISE grant the center has reported to the NIH that 83% of its students entered a doctoral program. That exceeds the campus鈥檚 grant goal, which was .
Mendoza is grateful: She was one of two students to win a campus scholarship that鈥檒l defray much, but not all, of the costs of attending school after losing her NIH award. That, plus a job at a pharmacy on weekends, may provide enough money to complete her bachelor鈥檚 next year.
Others are unsure how they鈥檒l afford college while maintaining a focus on research in the next school year.
鈥淵ou work so hard to put yourself in a position where you don鈥檛 have to worry, and then that鈥檚 taken away from you,鈥� said Camila Valderrama-Mart铆nez, a first-year graduate student at San Marcos who also earned her bachelor鈥檚 there and works in the same lab as Mendoza. She was in her first year of receiving the Bridges to the Doctorate grant meant for students in master鈥檚 programs who want to pursue a biomedical-focused doctoral degree. The grant came with a stipend of $26,000 annually for two years plus a tuition waiver of 60% and money to attend conferences.
She can get a job, but that 鈥渢akes away time from my research and my time in lab and focusing on my studies and my thesis.鈥� She relies solely on federal financial aid to pay for school and a place to live. Getting loans, often anathema for students, seems like her only recourse. 鈥淚t鈥檚 either that or not finish my degree,鈥� she said.
Terminated NIH grants in detail
These grant cancellations are separate at the NIH since Trump took office in January, including multi-million-dollar grants for vaccine and disease research. They鈥檙e also on top of an NIH plan to dramatically reduce how much universities receive from the agency to pay for maintaining labs, other infrastructure and labor costs that are essential for campus research. California鈥檚 attorney general led by Democrats in suing the Trump administration to halt and reverse those cuts.
In San Marcos鈥� case, the latest U-RISE grant lasted all five years, but it wasn鈥檛 renewed for funding, even though the application received a high score from an NIH grant committee.
Armenta, the associate director at the Cal State San Marcos training center, recalled that his NIH program officer said that though nothing is certain, he and his team should be 鈥渃autiously optimistic that you would be funded again given your score.鈥� That was in January. Weeks later, NIH discontinued the program.
He and Garcia shared the cancellation letters they received from NIH. Most made vague references to changes in NIH鈥檚 priorities. However, one letter for a specific grant program cited a common reason why the agency has been cancelling funding: 鈥淚t is the policy of NIH not to prioritize research programs related to Diversity (sic), equity, and inclusion.鈥�
That鈥檚 a departure from the agency鈥檚 emphasis on developing a diverse national cadre of scientists. As recently as February, 鈥渢here are many benefits that flow from a diverse scientific workforce.鈥�
Future of doctoral programs unclear
Josue Navarrete graduated this spring from Cal State San Marcos with a degree in computer science. Unlike the other students interviewed for this story, Navarrete, who uses they/them pronouns, was able to complete both years of their NIH training grant and worked in Becket鈥檚 lab.
But because of the uncertain climate as the Trump administration attempts to slash funding, Vanderbilt University, which placed Navarrete on a waitlist for a doctoral program, ultimately denied them admission because the university program had to shrink its incoming class, they said. Later, Navarrete met a professor from Vanderbilt at a conference who agreed to review their application. The professor said in any other year, Navarrete would have been admitted.
The setback was heartbreaking.
鈥淚鈥檓 gripping so hard to stay in research,鈥� Navarrete said. With doctoral plans delayed, they received a job offer from Epic, a large medical software company, but turned it down. 鈥淭hey wanted me to be handling website design and mobile applications, and that鈥檚 cool. It鈥檚 not for me.鈥�
Valderrama-Martinez cited Navarrete鈥檚 story as she wondered whether doctoral programs at universities will have space for her next year. 鈥淚 doubt in a year things are going to be better,鈥� she said.
She still looks forward to submitting her applications.
So does Mendoza. She wants to study microbiology 鈥� the research bug that bit her initially and brought her to San Marcos. Eventually she hopes to land at a private biotech firm and work in drug development.
鈥淥f course I鈥檓 gonna get a Ph.D., because that just means I get to do research,鈥� she said.