For decades, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has served as the federal home for health services research, funding studies that help make care safer, more effective, and more accessible for patients across the country. Following over a year of funding delays, staffing cuts, and uncertainty surrounding the agency's grantmaking operations, researchers began receiving formal notices in July 2026 that previously awarded projects would not receive continuation of funding.
As reports of canceled grants began to emerge, AcademyHealth worked to document what was happening. We launched a Research Interrupted tracker, engaged with media to raise awareness, and invited researchers to share how these decisions were affecting their work. Researchers responded with stories of halted clinical trials, abandoned partnerships, lost jobs, interrupted training programs, and years of taxpayer-funded research left unfinished.
The stories below capture what happens when health services research is disrupted. They highlight the innovative projects that have been stopped, as well as the patients, providers, and communities who stand to lose the evidence, tools, and improvements those projects were designed to deliver. If you are not already subscribed, follow our Substack for continued coverage of AHRQ, health services research, and the researchers working to improve health care in America.
Featured Stories on the AcademyHealth Situation Report Substack:
Our coverage has followed the AHRQ crisis from multiple angles, from the first grant termination notices to the broader implications for patients, health systems, and the nation's research infrastructure. These stories examine the policy decisions behind the cancellations, document their impact on ongoing studies, and highlight the experiences of researchers whose work was suddenly brought to a halt.
Together, they show how funding interruptions affect not only individual projects, but also the evidence, workforce, and partnerships that help improve health care delivery across the country.
- AHRQ Has Begun Canceling Research Grants. Here's What We Know.
- AHRQ Is Being Dismantled and the Consequences Will Reach Every Part of American Health Care
- Understanding the Downstream Effects of the AHRQ Grant Cancellations
- AcademyHealth Launches New Tracker on the Impact of AHRQ Grant Cancellations
- AHRQ Cuts and OMB Rule Threaten U.S. Research Enterprise
- What Researchers Told Us After Their AHRQ Grants Were Canceled
- The Reasons Behind the AHRQ Grant Cancellations Fail to Meet the Agency’s Own Standards
- What Rural Communities Stand to Lose From AHRQ Grant Cancellations
- What the Canceled AHRQ Grants Mean for Preventive Care
- The Research Was Working. Then AHRQ Funding Stopped
- The Cost of Forgetting How to Learn
- AHRQ Was Making Patient Care Safer. Now Lives Are at Risk
- AHRQ Trained the Next Generation of Health Care Delivery Researchers
AcademyHealth in the Media
As the situation unfolded, AcademyHealth became a resource for journalists seeking to understand the scale of the disruptions and what they mean for health care improvement in the United States.
As AcademyHealth President and CEO Aaron Carroll told Roll Call,
“Tens of millions of dollars have already been invested in these projects. People have been hired. Patients have been recruited. Lots of work is going on, and all of that is now wasted.”
Coverage also highlighted the experiences of individual researchers. Eric Roberts of the University of Pennsylvania, whose study examined ways to improve care for people enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, described the funding situation as
“a slow-moving disaster for the research community.”
The reporting below documents how concerns about staffing reductions and funding delays evolved into widespread coverage of grant cancellations, research disruptions, and the future of AHRQ's mission.
- HHS research agency ends funding for dozens of health studies
- Trump Administration Cuts Off Health Care Research Grants Without Warning
- Health department abruptly cancels health research grants worth millions
- Trump administration ends dozens of grants for studying patient care
- An Agency That Supports Health-Care Improvement Cuts Off Grant Funding
- AHRQ ends dozens of patient care research grants: Report
- Federal health quality research grants worth $109 million ended early
- Termination of AHRQ grants is the latest assault on health equity and the rule of law.
- HHS Agency Cuts Dozens of Grants
- Penn and CHOP researchers lost millions in federal funding for healthcare research last week, forcing programs to close
- Health Care Agency Discontinues Dozens of Active Research Awards
- Health Research Funding Suddenly Cut: Dr. Aaron Carroll Explains
- Trump administration has quietly throttled an agency devoted to the safety of American healthcare
- Federal grant cuts hit Colorado studies to make healthcare more efficient
- He Saw Specialist After Specialist. He Died When No One Gave Him a Flu Shot.