Some of the University of Utah researchers had been studying how best to care for critically ill babies in rural communities. Others were focused on reducing the disproportionately high rates of skin cancer in those same remote areas.
Additional projects were researching brain injuries in combat veterans, how cancer affects those living in poverty and why cardiovascular disease is more prevalent among Black individuals.
But the majority of the funding for that work is now cut — “effective immediately,” according to the notice of termination from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The U. received a letter earlier this month that the main federal grant supporting that groundbreaking research and its overarching Utah Clinical and Translational Science Institute on campus would be pulled because the work “no longer effectuates agency priorities” and “no modification” of the program could address that.
The reason? The projects from the institute all looked at the health disparities and inequities among specific communities. “So-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race,” the notice stated.
The U.’s latest grant proposal for the institute and its research used that language, saying the hope was to “increase science equity and health equity” in the West among many populations — but primarily those in rural and hard-to-reach places, tucked in the mountains and deserts of the region.
Read the full report at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.