As diversity scholarships, young scientists fear that they will pursue their careers

As diversity scholarships, young scientists fear that they will pursue their careers

Adelaide Tovar, a University of Michigan scientist who studies diabetes genes, felt like an imposter in a lab. Tovar, 32, grew up poor and was the first in her family to graduate from high school. During her first year of college, she realized that she didn't know how to study.

But after years of studying biology and genetics, Tovar finally got proof that she belonged. Last fall, the National Institutes of Health awarded her a prestigious fellowship. It would fund her research and put her on the right track as a university professor and eventually start her own laboratory.

“I felt like receiving the award was a form of acceptance of how I had finally made it,” Tovar said. “But I think a lot of us now fear that this will poison the rest of our careers.”

Tovar is one of nearly 200 young scientists across the country whose research and career prospects have been jeopardized by the sudden termination of the NIH's Mosaic Grant program, one of many ended by sweeping cuts to federal scientific agencies. The grant was created by the first Trump administration to encourage a new generation of diverse scientists in biomedical research and then removed in the ongoing purge of diversity, equity and inclusion in the second Trump administration.

In interviews with KFF Health News, Tovar and three other grant recipients feared that the loss of funding—combined with President Donald Trump's crusade against diversity programs—could turn a grant designed to launch their careers into a blemish on their résumés, potentially costing them the work and funding their research requires.

“We could be blacklisted by the NIH for having this distinction — for who we are,” said Erica Rodriguez, 35, a grant recipient at Columbia University who is conducting brain research that could lead to a better understanding of psychiatric disorders.

“Because it’s not just for people from different backgrounds,” she said, “but also for people who advocate for other people from different backgrounds.”

The Mosaic Program—short for “Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers”—was established in 2019 to support promising scientists from “underrepresented backgrounds” with a long-term goal of “improving diversity in the biomedical research workforce,” according to NIH grant documents.

The five-year fellowship was awarded to scientists who have completed their doctorates and are working in research laboratories at universities across the country. During their first two years, scientists generally receive $100,000 to $150,000, most of which goes toward paying their salaries.

By the third year, the scientists are expected to have been hired as professors at another university, where grant funding will help them start their own research laboratory. In the final three years of the grant, funding increases to about $250,000 per year, which is used to purchase supplies and hire other young scientists to work in the lab, completing the cycle.

Mosaic honorees were selected with a broad definition of diversity beyond race, gender and disability. These include those who grew up in poor households, rural areas, or were raised by parents who did not have a college degree. Many of those selected for the fellowship also have histories of supporting other aspiring scientists from underrepresented backgrounds.

Mosaic Funds research cancer, Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injuries, cochlear implants, fentanyl overdoses, stroke recovery, neurodevelopmental disorders and more.

In recent weeks, the NIH has notified most Mosaic recipients that the program has been "cancelled" and their funding will end until this summer, regardless of NIH emails reviewed by KFF Health News that remain on their grant. Other honorees received no official notification and only learned through word of mouth that their funding was canceled.

Vianca Rodriguez Feliciano, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed in an email statement to KFF Health News that Mosaic had been terminated. She said the grants "no longer align with the agency's priorities or the president's executive orders" to "wasteful, ideologically motivated DEI initiatives."

Trump signed one of those orders on his first day in the White House, directing the entire federal government to end programs that promoted diversity, calling them "shameful," "immoral" and an "immense public waste."

Diversity programs have been cut across the government, including at the NIH and other HHS agencies, which have canceled hundreds of grants worth billions of dollars since March. On April 21, the NIH issued a notice that recipients of the DEI programs were prohibited from receiving grants and that the agency could "recover all funds" from those who did not comply.

“At HHS, we are dedicated to restoring our agencies to their tradition of gold standard, evidence-based science—not political ideology,” said Rodriguez Feliciano. “We will leave no stone unturned to identify the root causes of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to make America healthy again.”

Many mosaic scientists focus on chronic diseases. For example, Tovar studies certain genes that make people more susceptible to diabetes, which affects about 38 million Americans.

“We have a lot of treatments for diabetes that are great for the people they work for,” Tovar said. “In my research, I use genetics to find better drug targets so we can find drugs that work for people who don’t yet have therapies.”

In interviews, Tovar and the other Mosaic recipients described how the sudden loss of funding will upend research and careers: Some postdoctoral researchers may lose their current jobs if funding runs dry in months. Laureates competing for professor jobs will lose research funding that made them stronger candidates. And those who have already been hired have less money for salaries and supplies in their research labs.

Ashley Albright, 32, who grew up poor in rural North Carolina, is now a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco, where she studiesStentor coeruleusa large single-celled organism with regenerative abilities. She plans to apply for professor jobs this fall.

Albright said the Mosaic funding gave her a “better shot at my dream,” which was to have other scientists from different backgrounds work in her research lab.

“I feel defeated,” she said. "I feel like I've had someone step in for half of my life. ... I've spent the last 10 years in graduate school working toward my postdoc so I can do science but also help other people."

Hannah Grunwald, 33, a grant recipient at Harvard who studies Eyes Without Cave Fish to better understand complex genetic traits, said one of her worst fears is that universities won't hire Mosaic laureates, with the White House telling schools to abandon DEI programs and withhold billions from those who don't buy into the Trump agenda bend.

“There has been a tremendous debate in our community about what we should say on our resumes,” Grunwald said. “I just don’t know if canceling my fellowship because it had to do with diversity will limit my ability to receive funding in the future.”

Mosaic's termination brought swift condemnation of several scientific organizations that receive grant funding to work closely with the awarded scientists. Some called it “short-sighted” and “a significant step backwards.”

Mary Munson, president of the American Society for Cell Biology, who has mentored awardees since Mosaic's inception, choked up and covered her face with her hands as she considered the possibility that the grant might hold her back.

"This scholarship doesn't take away the fact that they won this competitive award. It doesn't take away that they are amazing scientists," Munson said. “I hope that institutions will continue to see this.”

Stefano Bertuzzi, CEO of the American Society for Microbiology, which also runs Mentors Grant Awards, said the mass termination of Mosaic and other NIH grants could have a cumulative effect that will stifle scientific innovation for decades.

Bertuzzi, who emigrated from Italy in the 1990s because of America's robust science funding, said scientists will not stay or flock to a nation where research funding disappears on a political whim.

“We will lose a full generation of scientists,” Bertuzzi said. “Other countries in the world will prosper.”

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