The Cost of Words
The Minerva Project • February 6, 2026
Over the last year, the U.S. government has sharply increased restrictions around research funding, resulting in the reevaluation or termination in funding of projects. The National Institute of Health has been reportedly scouring existing grants for words like “trans,” “women,” or “diversity,” and flagging those projects.
Federal grants are vital to healthcare research, not only supporting the conduction of experiments but the people behind the research as well. This has led to over a hundred research projects changing their titles in the past year, removing words like “equity” and “disparity” and references to specific racial groups and gender minorities. Scientists and research groups are forced to navigate administrative hurdles and reframing or redirecting experimental questions to preserve funding, which significantly impedes scientific progress.
While the process of retitling may seem cosmetic, the language used in project titles plays an important role in scientific advancement. Titles determine how studies are indexed in databases, and how other researchers locate relevant findings. Precise and accurate language ensures that research on specific populations can be accurately identified and productively built upon. Furthermore, women and people of color were not even required to be in clinical studies until 1993, leading to large gaps in understanding of disease in these populations that still exist today. Focus on sex, gender, and race disparities in health is essential in closing those divides and making healthcare more accessible and equitable—and when there is risk in naming these groups in research studies, the effectiveness of healthcare is impacted as well.
