NIH Alzheimer’s Research Funding Is Back — for 49% Fewer Projects

In January, the National Institutes of Health budget was frozen by a broad Trump administration directive to pause new federal grants and loans to eliminate programs connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion and other topics. That resulted in a freeze on federal funding for Alzheimer’s disease research. Key NIH grant decisions, scientific research at Harvard and Columbia, and funding for Alzheimer’s disease research centers were among the efforts that were put on hold: more than one third of the 35 U.S. centers saw grant funding stall or expire.

Now, money is moving at the NIH again, thanks to judicial rulings and congressional negotiations. A total of  $3.8 billion  was earmarked for the NIH for 2025. As of August 23rd, about 90 percent of the funding has been distributed. 

That funding will be spread across fewer projects, and at a faster pace: To spend the remainder of the NIH budget, the agency is funding a batch of new projects for the next four years, in a lump sum. The White House budget office directed the NIH to award these funds up front.

Is this a good thing? Michael Lauer, who formerly ran NIH’s funding for researchers at non-governmental institutions across the U.S., told Nature that the NIH had historically discouraged this practice of up-front, lump sum funding. It has been shown to lead to lower success rates, even on research projects that a committee of scientific peers says are promising, and could stifle innovation, Lauer said.

It’s unclear if this is an ongoing change of policy. The NIH was unable to comment due to the government shutdown.

What’s the current status of funding?

Funding for the Alzheimer’s disease research centers left in limbo earlier this year has now been renewed.

Some universities whose funding was terminated earlier this year, including Columbia and Harvard, have had their funding restored. Columbia settled to pay the administration $200 million, agreed to cut DEI programs, and implement reforms to tackle antisemitism. Harvard’s funding was restored after a judicial ruling that called the cuts “unconstitutional.” But the months without funding have had lasting impacts.

For instance, David Nathan, the Harvard scientist who led the Harvard diabetes study that tracked people over 30 years told STAT News the shutdown slowed progress in understanding how the disease contributes to dementia. With funding renewed again, Nathan said, “We’re trying to recover.”

“It looks like Alzheimer’s is being hit pretty hard,” Jeremy Berg, former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which is one of the institutes that makes up the NIH, and now professor at the University of Pittsburgh, told Being Patient.

Berg, who has been using publicly available data to track research funding, found that, compared to last year, the number of new Alzheimer’s research projects receiving funding is down 49 percent, despite that the NIH is spending almost the same amount of budget. 

When funding is cut off for several months, Berg explained, researchers may be forced to lay off highly specialized staff who aren’t easily replaceable. The researchers running the Harvard study, for example, laid off 16 nurses and other employees because of the freeze and are still “trying to recover.”

What kinds of projects are being funded?

During his confirmation hearing, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said he wanted to support “all the range of hypotheses” on Alzheimer’s disease, and he criticized previous funding for not supporting “a sufficiently wide range” beyond the reigning theory of the amyloid hypothesis.

According to an analysis by Being Patient, 52 percent fewer Alzheimer’s research grants (77 in 2025 vs 158 in 2024) on pathways other than beta-amyloid are being funded in 2025, compared to 2024. 

“When funding gets tight, the projects that do get funded are often the most conservative ones,” Berg said. “What you don’t fund are the riskier, more out-there ideas that might turn out to be nothing, but they also might turn out to be real breakthroughs.”

To help researchers who are missing out on funding this year, the Alzheimer’s Association has teamed up with the Michael J. Fox Foundation to provide additional funding to early-career researchers whose work was disrupted by funding freezes and delays.

The future of U.S. Alzheimer’s research funding

U.S. Congress, the Senate, and the NIH are all calling for increases in Alzheimer’s and dementia funding.

Bhattacharya is pushing for a $187-million boost in funding for 2027.

For 2026, the Senate Appropriations Committee is asking for a $100 million increase, while the House is asking for $15 million. If both the Senate and House agree to pass legislation to increase funding, they’ll dole out the details and determine the increase. 

“We’re continuing to work with Congress in a bipartisan manner to ensure these investments are secured,” Laura Cilmi, vice president of public policy marketing and communications at the Alzheimer’s Association, wrote to Being Patient over email. “We believe now is the time to do more, not less.”

“There is an appreciation that Alzheimer’s is a particularly high priority because it was such a burden for so many people across society,” said Berg. “There are some scientific opportunities where real progress might be possible.”

Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the NIH, did not respond to specific questions at the time of publication due to delays caused by the government shutdown. “HHS remains committed to advancing research in Alzheimer’s disease and other serious health conditions,” she wrote over email.

UPDATE 29 October 2025, 8:30 P.M.: This article was updated to reduce redundancy.