The National Institutes of Health awarded about 56,600 extramural grants in fiscal 2026, roughly 7,500 fewer than in fiscal 2024, according to an Oct. 15 analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
The AAMC based its analysis on publicly reported NIH grant data for fiscal years 2024 through 2026. It also reviewed data on terminated, frozen and reinstated grants since January 2025 using Grant Witness, an independent, tracker run by scientists, researchers and attorneys. The AAMC used fiscal 2024 as a baseline and pulled the not-yet-final fiscal 2026 data on Oct. 12, 2026.
Six findings:
1. The agency awarded about 64,000 grants in fiscal 2024 and just under 58,500 in fiscal 2025. The declines hit every funding mechanism, including research project grants and training and career development awards.
2. While the NIH obligated its full $35.2 billion extramural grants budget in fiscal 2026, the federal shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 11, 2025 stalled awards early in the year. By the end of November, fiscal 2026 obligations stood at about 5% of what the agency had obligated by that point in each of the prior two years.
3. The AAMC tied part of the drop to the NIH’s growing use of multiyear funding, which pays for a project in full at the start. The agency obligated an estimated $1.9 billion to multiyear-funded competitive research project grants in fiscal 2026, compared with $2.1 billion in fiscal 2025 and $964 million in fiscal 2024. The report found that multiyear funding contributed to a 12% drop in grants awarded between fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2026.
3. Competitive awards fell 19% in fiscal 2025 from fiscal 2024, then recovered to 15,680 in fiscal 2026, 2% below the fiscal 2024 total.
4. Since Jan. 20, 2025, 5,776 NIH grants have been frozen or terminated at some point. As of Sept. 30, 2026, 14 grants remained frozen. Another 1,161 remained terminated with no reinstatement expected, including 415 R01 grants. Grants that were terminated and later reinstated were disrupted for an average of 131 days.
5. The AAMC argued that the NIH spending its full budget doesn’t mean the research system is healthy, since big swings in funding pace and grant volume disrupt institutional planning. It also flagged new uncertainty from the Office of Management and Budget’s recent proposal to overhaul federal grantmaking.
“After many months of uncertainty, stability of funding and policy is needed to build back the productive and trusting relationships between federal agencies and research institutions, which share the goal of improving health for all Americans,” the AAMC wrote.
View the full report here.
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