STAT+: Researchers ‘stunned’ after HHMI abruptly cancels program to make science more inclusive
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute abruptly ended a $60 million program to improve the retention of diverse college students
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private funder of biomedical research, this week abruptly ended a $60 million program aimed at improving the retention of a diverse student body in undergraduate science and engineering programs.
The decision came as a shock to the 104 institutions receiving funding through the program, called Inclusive Excellence, or IE3, especially because HHMI has vocally heralded moves to increase diversity in science in the past. In 2021, it announced it was committing $2 billion over 10 years to accelerate inclusion and equity throughout the academic science pipeline.
And it is dashing hopes that deep-pocketed philanthropies might help fill in gaps created by President Trump’s executive orders banning federal support for DEI programs and instructing recipients of government grants and contracts to end such initiatives. Since then, the federal agencies that fund scientific research, including the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, have begun reevaluating and halting projects that mention diversity.
