Class Action Lawsuit Accuses NIH of Using Keyword List to Block Grants

Researchers filed a class action lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday, alleging that the Trump administration has been blocking and cancelling scientific grants in order to censor topics with which it disagrees, according to the Guardian.

The lawsuit claims the administration has relied on a list of 235 keywords—including terms such as "gender" and "racist"—to prevent research proposals covering subjects ranging from health equity to climate change from receiving funding, the report states.

The NIH is described in the report as the world's largest public funder of biomedical research, making decisions about which studies receive federal support across a wide range of scientific and medical fields.

According to the Guardian, the plaintiffs argue that the use of the keyword list amounts to a form of censorship, restricting the scope of scientific inquiry based on subject matter rather than the scientific merit of proposed research.

The lawsuit was filed as a class action, suggesting the plaintiffs are seeking to represent a broader group of researchers who say they have been similarly affected by the grant restrictions.

Further details about the specific plaintiffs, the exact grants affected, and the NIH's response to the allegations were not included in the available reporting.