The Trump administration terminated funding for two National Institutes of Health (NIH) diversity programs, the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) and Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) programs, as of 2025. Funding for a 20-year study tracking participants in these programs was also terminated.

A study published in the journal Science Advances indicated that undergraduate students in the RISE and MARC programs were twice as likely to earn a Ph.D. compared to similar peers not enrolled in the programs. The RISE program provided funding to institutions for educational and mentoring initiatives aimed at students pursuing biomedical research careers. The MARC program offered two years of direct financial support to undergraduates for research and professional training.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 led to the establishment of the RISE and MARC programs. The study, funded in 2005 by Clif Poodry, former director of workforce development and diversity at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, included 608 students from the diversity programs and 135 students in comparison groups. Faculty members involved in recruiting for the programs selected students they believed would succeed in graduate school. The study matched participants with comparison students across 11 variables, including major, grade point average, scientific career intentions, and status as a first-generation college student.

Twenty percent of students in the RISE program obtained a Ph.D., while 10 percent in the comparison group did. In the MARC program, 34 percent of students earned a Ph.D., compared to 15 percent of students in the corresponding comparison group. Student data was collected through 2024, but funding reductions have prevented the analysis of post-graduation outcomes, such as graduate school satisfaction and publication records.

Economist Donna Ginther said, "I believe in mentoring, and I believe it works. So I’m not surprised at the finding at all, but I think it’s very important to underscore it in this environment." Social psychologist Anna Woodcock said, "The word that comes to mind is heartbreaking. It’s just absolutely crushing to spend 20 years of a career doing this work to find it cut so abruptly." Poodry said, "When I thought of all the people that we have helped, all the people who have come through and are now in academic positions, research positions, teaching positions, other positions where their opportunities in life are just, just so much better, and that to have that cut back, so that we can’t provide that same support for for next generation of students. I was really very sad."