Four major US-funded research networks that test vaccines and treatments for HIV, tuberculosis and emerging infectious diseases face an uncertain future after the Trump administration delayed the process to renew their funding.
Their current grants expire on November 30, 2027.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) told HIV researchers on Friday to temporarily hold off launching new studies that have not enrolled participants and would not finish by that date, The New York Times reported on October 7.
Scientists fear the delay could signal the end of the networks in their present form.
The delay centres on formal funding notices that kick off the renewal, which happens every seven years. The government had said it expected to publish them by August 25, but they had not appeared.
A federal official, speaking anonymously, said the notices were under review at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is led by Robert F Kennedy Jr. The health department did not say when the process would begin.
A spokeswoman said the administration planned to keep investing in HIV research that delivers meaningful results.
The networks are the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, the HIV Prevention Trials Network, the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and the IMPAACT network.
Together they work in dozens of countries, have run hundreds of trials and cost more than $300 million a year, mostly from federal funds.
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They also helped test Covid-19 vaccines and treatments by quickly enrolling tens of thousands of participants.
Researchers say the delay comes on top of wider cuts to HIV work. These include steep reductions in foreign aid for the fight against HIV and the firing of roughly a third of staff in the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's HIV prevention division.
Last year the NIH also ended a $258 million programme central to the search for an HIV vaccine. Kennedy has been critical of that search.
NIH director Jay Bhattacharya has favoured steering money towards deploying existing tools, such as the twice-yearly preventive injection lenacapavir.
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Many experts argue that only a vaccine or cure can end an epidemic that affects over 40 million people and kills more than 500,000 a year.
Some scientists fear the NIH may dismantle the networks and fund individual grants, or limit research to US sites. Wafaa El-Sadr, who helped lead one network until last year, said the work was "very fragile".
Researchers warn that interrupted trials could endanger participants, disrupt staffing and erode trust in communities.
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