‘A gut punch:’ How U.S. neuroscience trainees are grappling with diversity-based funding flux

D-SPAN Award recipient, postdoc-to-faculty diversity award applicant 

Last February, I applied to a diversity-focused postdoc-to-faculty transition award. It was reviewed a few months later, and I resubmitted in November. My study section was set to meet on 26 February. But for the past few weeks, programs exist, and then they don’t, and then they do again. When the Notice of Funding Opportunity expired, the grant team at the NIH said I should consider withdrawing my resubmission, restructuring it and applying to the parent program. So that’s what I did.

Earlier this week, I got word that the diversity award is back. But I had already withdrawn. It’s a gut punch. I do think that the parent award is probably just a bit more stable of a program at this point in time, but I put a year of work into the other submission. As scientists, we structure our plans months to years out. So if suddenly the rug is pulled out from underneath you, it can be devastating. I don’t hold individuals at the NIH accountable for the chaos and recognize that we’re all operating as best we can with limited information that rapidly changes.

When I was an undergraduate and even a graduate student, there were not a lot of folks in positions of power who shared life experiences with me. I found my own community through programs like the Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) at the Society for Neuroscience, and that power of connection and understanding really strengthened and invigorated me. Now that I’m further along in my career, I can be that mentor to folks.

We can’t lose a generation of scientists from a wide variety of backgrounds and make our underrepresented mentees feel isolated. Everything that has happened so far has strengthened my resolve to stay in academia. It means something to me. And it will be something that I will dedicate myself to. We’ll see what shape that takes in the coming years, but my goal is to lead a lab where we do really great science, but also really care about each other. — As told to Calli McMurray

D-SPAN Award recipient and Neuroscience Scholars Program fellow

I am in the last year or so of my Ph.D., so I had started emailing potential faculty mentors for my postdoc, and when the executive order came out, I just stopped. I feel like I should wait to email people because I can’t promise that I have my own funding. We’re all at risk now, but I think especially those of us who are still in the F99 part of D-SPAN.

Having these grants gives you a degree of confidence because you’re essentially going to be way more affordable for the next person who’s going to be your adviser. It made me feel like I had the power to be more proactive about where I wanted to continue my academic journey. I don’t feel that way anymore. Now I just want to wrap up my Ph.D. I’m making small mistakes that I was not making before because of the underlying stress from not knowing what’s going to happen.

These programs have also been valuable in terms of mentorship. I did not realize I was passionate about research until pretty late in life. I grew up in Tijuana near the U.S.-Mexico border, and I became interested in neuroscience when my dad started having atypical symptoms, and I started reading about mental health disorders. I didn’t know how any of this worked; I just recognized the importance of having knowledgeable mentors and people who have gone through the path. So that’s why I wanted to be part of NSP and D-SPAN—these programs give you a sense of belonging.

As for my career goals, I’ve been pretty set on my goal of becoming a principal investigator. And I’m the type of person who, if you tell me I can’t do something, it’s going to make me want to do it even more. — As told to Claudia López Lloreda

D-SPAN Award recipient

I received my notice of award for this year’s funding two weeks before all these changes went down. But I’m assuming next year’s funding is not going to happen. I’m also worried that the Trump administration is going to terminate my active grant any day, because they don’t seem to care about the law. My PI does not have funding to cover me for any long-term amount of time, so I’ve already started looking for other jobs.

I was already looking for a job last year, during the first year of my postdoc. I was like, “This isn’t working out. The pay is too low.” The whole reason I have this grant is because I come from a poor family, and I need to now support that family. But then I talked to my PI, and we figured something out. So then I was like, “OK, I can stay, and I’m going to use the full four years of this D-SPAN.” I started helping my PI write grants and plan projects; I was very excited. And then this happened.

I’ve done no work since Trump took office. There’s no point in doing my research right now if I’m going to get kicked out. I’m exhausted. It was already hard enough to be in academia. Now I’m like, “Why am I still trying to fight and stay here?” Which I know is their goal, and so some part of me wants to stay to spite them. I want to leave academia on my own terms, not be forced out.  — As told to Calli McMurray

D-SPAN Award applicant, diversity graduate fellowship recipient

I had planned to graduate a year from now. I had plans to continue the experiments that are outlined in my F31 graduate fellowship and my F99 proposal, which would strengthen my contributions to the current paper I’m working on. I’m going to talk with my committee to see if I can graduate without that, given the circumstances. But in all honesty, I wanted to continue my work.

I grew up in a small, rural community in eastern Washington. I dropped out of college twice because I didn’t realize how much it would cost, and I could not afford to pay for it. I managed to take some classes in biology, and once I started teaching and leading review sessions, I really enjoyed it. I eventually transferred to Eastern Washington University and participated in the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program—a federally funded program for underrepresented students—and that’s when I learned about graduate school programs for biomedical research. A track to be a PI became a real goal of mine then.

I want to do cool science, mentor, teach—do all these really awesome things in academia that have helped me get where I am. So I need to do a postdoc and publish papers, make contributions to the field, build skills, all this stuff. And I feel like my opportunities for that are more limited now. — As told to Angie Voyles Askham

D-SPAN Award recipient

I got the D-SPAN Award in 2021 when I was pursuing my Ph.D. at Boston University, studying visual perception in humans. Finishing a Ph.D., it’s like you’re almost up the mountain, but you’re in that final stretch. Obviously, the funding is critical for doing the research, but for me, it also opened a lot of doors for networking. The D-SPAN gave me a sense of community and people to look up to who had already done that. The award also gave me the leverage to pursue my own ideas and really become an independent scientist. There’s security in that.

With the uncertainty of these grants now, I’m fortunate that my PI could probably cover me, but there will have to be sacrifices made in order to come up with that. For me, the whole goal is to become independent to a point where I could lead my own team and answer unique research questions. But I have been rethinking that.

Even if it’s distracting, it’s hard not to stay tapped into the politics and the conversations about why these programs were eliminated. In addition to the unsettling uncertainty, there’s the question of, “Well, who’s going to do the research in the future?” I’d be surprised if there weren’t a brain drain. Academia isn’t a luxurious career path. Now, with all this, it’s even less attractive.  — As told to Claudia López Lloreda

Co-founder of an undergraduate research program funded by a diversity training grant

I help run an undergraduate research program that’s funded by an R25, which is 100 percent a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) grant. We’re really worried that the funding will be cut off. There’s not that many research opportunities for undergrads in Colorado. So we bring undergrads from historically marginalized groups, mostly from community colleges, to the Denver metro area to get research experience. We’ve been going for four or five years at this point.

We’ve had actual success: Our students have started grad school here, and they’ve gotten really prestigious scholarships afterward. For many of them, this is their only way to get into research. We’re already recruiting students for the upcoming summer. What happens if we accept them, and we have no money?

These undergrad programs that get people research experience and mentorship are incredibly important. If we get rid of them, I’m not sure what kind of pipeline we will be left with. Will only super-privileged people be able to go to grad school?  — As told to Calli McMurray

D-SPAN Award recipient 

I received the F99 portion of the award back in September. I planned to use at least a year and a half of the F99 and then submit for a K00 sometime in 2026. As soon as the anti-DEI executive order came out, I thought, “OK, well, the first word of the title of my grant is ‘diversity.’ I am probably not going to get the K.”

Now I’m going to have to apply for other postdoc fellowships. I do feel like I’m in a bit of a fortunate situation because I already have a postdoc mentor identified, and he has expressed to me that he would take me regardless of the funding, which is not the case for all of the D-SPAN awardees.

I study how brain-body signals influence decision-making in rhesus monkeys. For monkey labs, hiring a postdoc can cost as much as getting a new monkey. The D-SPAN meant that I basically come with a free monkey. It was also a big relief for me now, because I am doing a project that the lab didn’t have a grant for. My adviser was willing to take a risk and let me try something new. The lab has all the animal and equipment resources, but my salary was always kind of a question. I was spending a lot of time working as a teaching assistant; this gave me the opportunity to put more effort into my research instead. Now we’re worried: If my F99 doesn’t get renewed, am I just going to have to graduate early and leave things unfinished? — As told to Calli McMurray

Former D-SPAN Award recipient and current NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative grantee

I was recently awarded a K99/R00 grant from the HEAL Initiative, which aims to support early-career investigators who do research in pain or substance use disorders. But with everything happening, I haven’t gotten any information about it. We are still working as normal. And I am worried because now I have a baby, and I have to make sure that I have a job. But I just don’t want to think about another job.

I have been on track and preparing for the transition to a faculty position for two or three years now. It’s important for me as a woman that we understand how the female brain works—the focus of my current research. In this situation that we’re in, it’s even more important for me to stay and fight for my work, because there’s still a lot we don’t know.

The situation is sad, because we’re not taking anybody’s position. We’re still fighting for them—there are hundreds of applications every year, and they only award a few. If the diversity grants disappear, the opportunities are going to be scarce, and there’s going to be more competition. But we can compete, we are good, and we deserve to be here.

It’s just that for a lot of people—for example, like me, who come from Puerto Rico, from a school that maybe does not have any research—these programs give you a door to be there. Now maybe these students are not going to be able to have that door, but it’s up to us to do it individually. If I have a lab, maybe I can invite a few students during the summer to do research with me and try to figure out a way to bring them here. But those initiatives cannot die. — As told to Claudia López Lloreda

Graduate diversity fellowship applicant

Growing up, my mom had a pretty severe spectrum of neurodevelopmental conditions, as well as borderline personality disorder, which is what I study now. I had no outside financial support in college—everything was loans and grants. And so getting a T34 undergraduate fellowship really alleviated a lot of that stress for me and allowed me to focus on my research.

Once I got into grad school, I experienced a traumatic event during my first semester and ended up having to pause my laboratory research rotations and focus on my coursework. I had this period of time where I couldn’t focus for more than two or three hours a day. Once I recovered a bit, I decided I was going to try for this F31 diversity grant because I thought it would help me show that I can work hard and perform at the level that I was at before, now that I have the proper accommodations.

I put so much work into it that I actually started to build a bit of confidence, and I felt really proud of it. I was so excited to have it reviewed and to see the comments, even though I still wasn’t too optimistic. And then to read that it and the other diversity applications were put to the bottom of a pile and discarded—that was very painful for me.

It does seem like it will at least be reviewed now. But even if it is, and I get funding, who’s to say this funding is not going to be challenged? It just shows that maybe we can’t trust the people higher up in these positions to fight for us as underrepresented applicants. We are in this really precarious position where we’re constantly going to have to be advocating for ourselves the way that we did this time around. — As told to Angie Voyles Askham.

D-SPAN Award recipient 

I just finished the first year of the K00 portion of my grant, and then there are three more years left. You submit a progress report to renew the funding every year, but it’s supposed to be secured for the entire period. My next notice of award should come in March. I’m nervous, but if I end up not having funds, my PI can still fund me.

This grant made it possible for me to return home to Puerto Rico after my Ph.D. My institution doesn’t always have a lot of funding. It’s just harder to get grants here. There was another postdoc who had to leave the lab last year because there wasn’t enough funding for him. I was able to stay because I had my own funding, and since I stayed and collected more data, that has helped my PI apply to bigger grants.

In around two years, when I finish my postdoc, I was hoping to apply to the postdoc-to-faculty diversity award—it’s not that common to have startup funds in Puerto Rico. I know there’s still the parent award that is not diversity focused, and I’m definitely going to apply still, but it is on my mind that it might be more challenging to get this funding if I don’t have access to the diversity mechanism. I get nervous about not having funding for my future lab. — As told to Calli McMurray