U.S. — The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued termination notices to researchers last week. At least 67 grants have been canceled as of Friday, according to AcademyHealth.

The 67 canceled grants lost nearly $97 million in estimated remaining committed funding, according to AcademyHealth. AcademyHealth has learned of more than 45 researchers and institutions who have received cancellation notices. Termination letters stated that the agency "is adjusting its discretionary health services research award portfolio in order to better prioritize agency resources."

"Investigators across the country began receiving official notices stating that continuation funding will not be awarded," said Aaron E. Carroll, president and CEO of AcademyHealth. "This isn't just about researchers losing grants. These projects study how to reduce hospital infections, improve patient safety, lower costs, integrate behavioral health into primary care, and train the next generation of health services researchers."

Mark Clapp, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, had two research projects funded by the agency that had not received funding since August 2024. His two projects were approved in August 2024 as five-year projects. Neither received the standard non-competitive renewal notice after the first year.

One of his projects has shut down. "I was not expecting [AHRQ funding] to ever come back, but I guess there was always some glimmer of hope that the money that had been appropriated would come through," Clapp said.

Nora Becker's funding stalled in September 2025. She had been awarded a grant three years prior to study the financial effects on people after they have had COVID. Her institution started funding her project after her non-competitive renewal notice did not arrive.

"It can't continue indefinitely, and it's been really stressful," said Becker, MD, PhD, at the University of Michigan. "I've been applying for grants frantically to find alternative funding."

Eric T. Roberts had a grant to study how to improve care for people dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. His original award began in 2023 and covered five years. Roberts had received support for only two of the five years.

A postdoctoral researcher working on his project was laid off. Roberts, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, received a termination notice last week. "This has been a slow-moving disaster for the research community," Roberts said.

Dr. Stephen W. Patrick received a termination letter last week for his department's training program. The grant was a five-year grant that has not received funding since last summer. Emory University is supporting current trainees in Patrick's program but will not be able to accept new ones. "These training grants are designed to train the next generation of researchers in this space," said Patrick, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University.

Multiple types of awards are affected by the cancellations, including research grants, career development awards, institutional training grants, and research infrastructure programs. Funding was terminated for a randomized trial focused on antibiotic stewardship across 40 hospitals, according to AcademyHealth. Timothy Beebe was denied $3 million out of an expected $5 million five-year grant. "I can't see a way to continue it without this grant support," said Beebe, a health-care management professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Grant termination notices listed priorities as patient safety, preventing antibiotic resistance, telehealth, overmedication of children, use of digital health tools to improve health, long COVID, artificial intelligence, nutrition, furthering understanding of autism, promoting research focused on scientifically valid, measurable health outcomes, and solution-oriented approaches in health disparities research. "AHRQ exists to generate and translate evidence that helps make healthcare safer, higher quality, and more affordable," Carroll said.

"Under statute, the AHRQ Director must determine whether continuation funding is in the best interest of the federal government," said a Health and Human Services Department spokesperson. The spokesperson said that certain noncompeting continuation grants and jointly funded grants would not receive continuation awards. The Health and Human Services Department disputed that the cuts are grant terminations, suggesting they are nonrenewals. The department said in an email that "AHRQ determined that certain non-competing continuation grants and jointly funded grants would not receive continuations awards." The phrase "best interest of the federal government" appeared in four grant cutoff letters researchers received last week.

Mass firings and resignations under pressure left the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality with roughly 20% of its staff, according to AcademyHealth. Many meetings of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force had been canceled. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality receives about $345 million a year from Congress.

The agency's annual budget is about 0.3 percent of Health and Human Services Department discretionary appropriations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has not spent any of its funding in fiscal 2026. Spokespeople for the Health and Human Services Department did not provide interviews or answer multiple written questions Friday.