NASHVILLE — The Trump administration has eliminated $2 million in HIV research facility funding for Meharry Medical College after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the National Institutes of Health to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in DEI-linked funding for biomedical research.

Meharry, one of the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black medical schools, intended to use the funding for a “cutting-edge and modern HIV research space.”

For decades, Meharry scientists have investigated why minority populations are disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS, working in tandem with Vanderbilt University and other organizations. Meharry was seeking to expand its capacity to conduct clinical trials and produce groundbreaking research.

The grant was terminated in March with no explanation or path of recourse.

“We are very disappointed, because we are working hard and we had a vision for this lab, and now that will not materialize anymore, at least for the time being,” Vladimir Berthaud, the grant’s principal investigator, said. Berthaud has worked at Meharry for nearly 25 years and was instrumental in founding the Meharry Center for HIV/AIDS Health Disparities Research in 2005.

At the same time, Berthaud said he is thankful that the NIH reinstated funding that was initially frozen for a long-standing grant that supports  investigators from Meharry and partner institutions who are studying the inner-workings of the virus to inform efforts to develop a cure and vaccine for HIV, an area of research with limited funding.

The cuts to Meharry are among $783 million in NIH funding eliminated by the federal government for a broad spectrum of disease research — including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease —  that had diversity, equity and inclusion components. The Trump administration decision to eliminate the programs was upheld in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in August. 

The NIH cuts are among a “catastrophic” series of federal HIV/AIDS program eliminations this year, disrupting the ongoing work of preventing, testing, treating and developing a vaccine for the disease in the U.S. and worldwide, said John Meade, a senior program manager for AVAC, a nonprofit that focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention.

See what research at Tennessee universities was defunded in Trump’s federal grant cuts

Thus far this year, the government has eliminated 191 HIV-specific grants worth $200 million, and brought 56% of active HIV clinical trials to a halt, Meade said. 

It has terminated U.S.-backed international HIV research and slashed the NIH workforce tasked with HIV/AIDS work. In May, the NIH announced it would eliminate the annual $67 million budget for the Consortia for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Development, which has worked to develop a vaccine for the disease.

“This will leave a hole in infectious disease research for the long term,” said Meade, who noted HIV/AIDS funding is especially vulnerable to anti-DEI initiatives because the disease disproportionately impacts people of color and LGBTQ individuals. 

“I believe there was a very targeted attack when it came to HIV specifically, primarily because the populations it primarily impacts,” he said.

Local advocates said the federal research cuts will have a direct impact on people living with HIV/AIDS or those at risk for contracting it.

“The sum total of federal cuts to research, prevention and suppression send the intended message: the government doesn’t care about eliminating HIV,” said Molly Quinn, executive director for OUTMemphis, an LGBTQ advocacy organization that offers support and services to people living with HIV/AIDS.

“As a service provider for HIV patients, these cuts make it harder for us to do our work, more likely for people to remain untested, and harder for patients to get the health care they need,” she said.  “Service providers across the South have to stand together and redouble our efforts, because we’re all interconnected. HIV can be eliminated, but our silence won’t save us.”

HIV/AIDS research in jeopardy

Meharry and Vanderbilt established a teaching, research and patient care alliance in 1999. Both schools have received NIH funding for AIDS-related research for years.

In 2003, NIH granted the schools $2.25 million over three years to establish a new Center for AIDS Research operated by the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. At the time, the center was the first to include a historically Black university like Meharry.

NIH funding supported the creation of the Meharry Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research in 2005. A decade later, a five-year NIH grant allowed Meharry and Vanderbilt to expand their AIDS research center to include the Tennessee Department of Health, establishing the Tennessee Center for AIDS Research (CFAR.)


By 2020, the center grew into a partnership between Vanderbilt, Meharry, the state health department and Nashville CARES, an HIV/AIDS service nonprofit providing education, confidential testing and support services to more than 20,000 Tennesseans.

NIH granted an additional $7.5 million meant to span five years “to enable the CFAR to continue its efforts to reduce the burden of HIV by supporting a wide range of scientific research, training and mentoring, and community engagement in Tennessee and beyond,” according to a May 2020 news release.

The funding was, in part, a result of the Biden administration’s effort to implement diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives now being gutted by the Trump administration. 

Vanderbilt University Medical Center grant cuts may include faculty, research diversity initiatives

In response to former President Joe Biden’s directive that each federal agency create a DEI plan, the NIH sought to redistribute research funding more broadly beyond elite colleges and universities to institutions that represent underserved communities. 

Historically black colleges and universities such as Meharry received infrastructure grants to expand their research capacity in order to compete for future grants, such as the $2 million grant to upgrade lab facilities at Meharry, Meade said. 

“There was a lot put into HBCUs to increase their infrastructure so they would be able to carry out and be more competitive” against institutions like Harvard and Stanford, who have historically received the lion’s share of biomedical research funding, he said.

$2M training facility grant terminated; others reinstated

The $2 million award started on Sept. 16, 2022, but was terminated on March 21 before construction began. About $114,000 had already been spent on pre-construction activities when the remaining funds were rescinded, according to usaspending.gov, a government-run federal spending database.

Meharry worked closely with the NIH to ensure compliance with the highest standards in each step of the design process for the new center, which was 95% designed when the federal government terminated the funds needed to bring those plans into reality, Berthaud said.

The funding would have paid for a “cutting-edge and modern HIV research space” at the college, which has been researching “factors responsible for the profoundly disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS among minority populations” for the last two decades in partnership with Vanderbilt and other organizations. 

The new lab facility would have included space and equipment for up to six new investigators near the Meharry Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research, according to a grant summary. The center’s current setup features four labs within the center and other HIV/AIDS investigators scattered among other university buildings.The lack of modern facility space “severely impedes” the college’s ability to attract new research faculty to the center, the grant summary states.

Because the grant was solely focused on construction of the lab, its termination did not impact any researchers’ employment. 

The loss of the grant doesn’t directly impact Meharry’s other work in HIV/AIDS research, but it does represent a setback in the college’s overall plans to attract other HIV researchers to come to Meharry for their work.

“We envisioned a lot of opportunities, so those opportunities are gone for research and training for what they call the next generation of HIV researchers,” Berthaud said. “And this was not just for Meharry. We’re supposed to train and offer opportunities for anyone around the country who would like to use this lab for training and research.”

A separate multi-million dollar award to continue work at the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Program in Health Disparities Research at Meharry Medical College was also terminated, but NIH reinstated funding around July. The grant is a renewal of a long-standing program that appears to stretch back to at least 2017, according to transaction history listed on usaspending.gov. 

Changes at NIH give political appointees greater power to fund or block research

The program is focused on eliminating health disparities, specifically in diseases with detrimental impacts on minority health, including HIV/AIDS, the award summary states. Mentoring early-career researchers and improving relationships with community organizations are among the program’s broader goals.

The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities obligated around $4 million to the program in late July, usaspending.gov records show.

Another grant funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration that supports international AIDS relief — the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — was also reinstated after a funding freeze. The international program was founded in 2003 and has since saved more than 25 million lives, Berthaud said. Meharry uses PEPFAR funding to reduce mother-to-baby HIV transmission rates in multiple African countries, and conducts exchange programs with universities in low- and middle-income countries, according to the college.

Berthaud said that while HIV treatment is now relatively simple, staying on treatment can be difficult for people, especially those living in less wealthy countries.

“We shouldn’t let our guards off regarding HIV,” he said. “Yes, we have made tremendous progress, and most of this progress, we owe it to the NIH. The major discoveries in HIV research have been funded by the NIH.”

Meharry’s partner institutions have not publicly addressed the NIH funding cuts or freezes. 

Nashville CARES declined to comment while Vanderbilt University Medical Center offered no response. 

The recent federal funding cuts introduce more uncertainty in the timetable for a cure, or a vaccine, while HIV in Tennessee continues to grow.

There are nearly 20,000 people living with HIV in Tennessee, according to the state’s health department. Memphis is among the top 50 cities for new HIV infections.

“The biggest thing is that it continues to slow down the process to study HIV and hopefully find a way to do vaccine trials that people have been waiting for,” said Ray Holloman, chair of the transgender task force at the Tennessee Equality Project.

“There’s been years and years of these grants coming through and the government saying, yes, we need to find a cure and, now, it’s not so much,” he said.