Were any specific cancer research grant mechanisms (R01, P30, SPORE) reduced under Trump?
Executive summary
Multiple reputable outlets report that the Trump administration sharply reduced NIH grant funding across mechanisms including a large share of R01s and many multi-project and center grants, and also canceled or froze hundreds of cancer-related awards; analyses show R01s were the single award type most often terminated (229 R01s totaling about $471 million in one tally) and NIH-wide terminations or freezes totaled roughly $1.8–2.3 billion in affected grants in early 2025 [1] [2] [3].
1. What the data say about R01s — the backbone of investigator-led research
News analyses and a grant-by-grant count show R01s were disproportionately hit: a MedPage Today analysis counted 229 R01 terminations with a combined loss of roughly $470,994,788, making R01s the single largest class of terminated awards in that sample [1]. Industry reporting also documents the NIH sharply increasing the fraction of highly ranked R01 applications that went unfunded and that the agency awarded 24% fewer R01 grants in a recent year; by late FY2025 the NCI was funding only the top 4 percentile of new-investigator R01 scores in one account [4] [3].
2. P30s and center grants — cores under pressure but less granularly counted
P30 center-core grants fund shared infrastructure for cancer centers and other institutes. Government pages describe P30s as five‑year center-core awards that support shared resources for R01 investigators [5] [6]. Reporting indicates the administration’s moves — contract and grant freezes, indirect‑cost caps and programmatic review orders — put center-level support and the indirect funding that sustains cores at risk, but the public counts focus more on aggregate cancellations than a neat P30 tally [7] [8]. Available sources do not provide a definitive nationwide count of how many P30 CCSGs were terminated specifically under the Trump policies; they document threats to the funding model that supports them [9] [7].
3. SPOREs and other cancer-specific program grants — targeted but not singled out uniformly
SPOREs (P50) are long-standing NCI translational grants; the NIH keeps active solicitations and program descriptions for SPOREs [10] [11]. Press coverage and investigative reporting describe cancellations and freezes across many cancer programs and mention that some cancer-focused grants and center activities were canceled or folded into other programs without added funding [12] [8]. However, the provided material does not include a single, comprehensive count of SPORE (P50) terminations equivalent to the R01 figures; available sources do not mention a consolidated SPORE-specific termination total [10] [11].
4. Mechanisms and administration actions that explain the pattern of cuts
Multiple policy moves explain why certain mechanisms were affected: executive orders to improve oversight of federal grantmaking gave agencies new authority to pause or terminate awards and to prioritize “national interest” criteria [13]. The administration sought to cap indirect cost reimbursements (15% cap proposed) and ordered large contract reductions, both of which reduce the effective funds available to support R01-driven projects and P30 cores that rely on institutional infrastructure support [7] [14]. Courts and state AG lawsuits have restored some funding, showing the effect is a mix of terminations, freezes and partial reinstatements [7] [15].
5. Different perspectives in the record — priorities, legality, and scientific risk
The administration framed the changes as oversight and savings; its executive orders argue for aligning grantmaking with agency priorities and the “national interest” [13]. Researchers, institutions, and several states view the moves as politically driven, arbitrary, and damaging to science — reporting documents lawsuits, court orders restoring funding, and sector warnings that cuts endanger clinical trials and long-term discovery [3] [15] [8]. Independent trackers and outlets reported both large numbers of terminations and that courts have reinstated many of the canceled awards, reflecting legal pushback [7] [16].
6. What this means for cancer research capacity right now
The combination of many terminated R01s, paused payments, proposed indirect‑cost caps, and administrative re-prioritization has disrupted investigator salaries, lab continuity, and center cores that enable multi‑project programs, creating immediate gaps and potential long‑term declines in translational pipelines [1] [7] [12]. Sources emphasize uncertainty: some funds have been restored by courts, but the structural proposals (oversight, indirect-cost caps) could reshape which mechanisms — R01, P30, SPORE — receive support going forward [13] [14].
Limitations: reporting in the provided set gives concrete R01 termination counts and dollar figures [1] and broad aggregate dollar-loss estimates [2], but does not supply a comprehensive, mechanism-by-mechanism database for P30s or SPOREs comparable to the R01 tally; where the sources lack a specific fact I note that omission rather than assert it [5] [10].