The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has suffered yet another round of grant terminations. Over the past year and a half, AHRQ has lost nearly all extramural grants staff, halted peer review panels, failed to obligate any awarded funds, and has not released any new Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) (see previous FABBS reporting). Last week’s cancellations directly affected FABBS researchers.
Friends of AHRQ, of which FABBS is a member, has been collecting information from AHRQ grantees to get a sense of how damaging the cancellations have been. They have estimated that, as of July 20, AHRQ has sent notices of cancellation for over 70 grants across 28 states, but there are likely many more. These include research grants, career development awards, institutional training programs, and research infrastructure and support awards. Technically, the grants were not awarded a continuation, rather than being terminated, though this is a distinction without a difference. Prior to receiving their notification letters, many researchers had been waiting months for the agency to release the latest funds for their multiyear grants – something AHRQ refused to do despite Congress appropriating the funds (see this previous FABBS article for an explanation of impoundment).
According to the notification letter, the agency indicates that these grants are no longer “in the best interest of the Federal Government” and do not fit AHRQ’s current priorities, which include:
Focusing agency resources on patient safety, preventing antibiotic resistance, telehealth, overmedication of children, use of digital health tools to improve health, long COVID, artificial intelligence, nutrition, furthering understanding of autism, promoting research focused on scientifically valid, measurable health outcomes and solution-oriented approaches in health disparities research (internal AHRQ communication).
However, many of the terminated grants study these very topics. Rather than actually attempting to adjust its research portfolio, this seems to be another step in the administration’s plan to dismantle AHRQ entirely. By contrast, other agencies have had the opportunity to work with applicants to bring grants in line with priorities. Further, the language in the notification letter seems to mirror that in OMB’s recently proposed rule for federal financial assistance, which has not yet gone into effect (see previous FABBS reporting).
The advocacy community, led by the Friends of AHRQ, has been working diligently to ensure that congressional leaders and the public are aware of these baseless actions. If you have information to share, you can reach out to the Friends of AHRQ at advocacy@academyhealth.org.
