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Grant ‘comes at the expense of more funding for essential, truth-seeking science,’ fiscal watchdog says
A report on government waste by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul recently brought to light a $3.3 million grant to Northwestern University for the purpose of funding “scientific neighborhoods,” “safe space ambassadors,” and “inclusive excellence coaching.”
The grant was mentioned in the Kentucky Republican’s most recent annual “Festivus Report,” which shines light on wasteful government spending. The report says that despite the university’s $14 billion endowment, it took $3.3 million in taxpayer dollars to fund administrators’ “woke cult” project.
The project aimed “to disrupt systemic barriers that impede the full participation of underrepresented groups by funding the cluster hiring of new faculty in the areas of cancer, cardiovascular, and brain and behavioral sciences,” according to a university news release in 2022, the year the grant was awarded.
“The funding is designed to address the dearth of under-represented minorities in the life sciences,” the news release stated.
However, Christopher Neefus, spokesperson for Open the Books, told The College Fix that the tax dollars spent on the project detracted from real scientific inquiry. Open the Books is a fiscal watchdog organization based in Illinois where Northwestern also is located.
“The extravagant spending highlighted by Senator Paul comes at the expense of more funding for essential, truth-seeking science,” Neefus said in a recent email. “Rigorous pursuits are too often being sidelined in favor of ideologically charged, discriminatory projects that have nothing to do with research and development.
“Those fighting changes to the status quo have lamented ‘attacks on science,’ but safe spaces and ‘inclusive excellence’ hardly qualify,” he told The Fix.
The grant, which originally was a five-year funding plan, pledged upwards of $10.8 million to Northwestern for its Recruitment to Transform Under-Representation and achieve Equity (NURTURE) program.
However, the grant was terminated by the Department of Health and Human Services on April 8, 2025 under the new Trump administration.
The grant provided funding for 15 new tenure-track faculty. One of its aims included a team of “safe space ambassadors” and “comprehensive mentoring and sponsorship for NURTURE cohort members to empower self-efficacy and combat isolation throughout their Northwestern onboarding and promotion journey,” according to the university.
The Fix reached out to Northwestern’s media relations office multiple times over the past month, asking for more details about the grant and the NURTURE program, but did not receive a response.
The Fix also contacted Eric Perreault, a co-primary investigator on the NURTURE project, to inquire about whether DEI practices were used in the hiring of the 15 faculty members, and if those practices were continued after President Donald Trump signed his executive order ending DEI preferencing before the grant was ended in April. Perrault did not respond to multiple emails over the past month.
The Fix also reached out to Sen. Paul’s office for comment on the grant; however, the office did not respond.
In a news release about the report, Paul said: “No matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more. Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it’s one I’ve walked year after year … it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.”
Northwestern’s HHS grant was a part of the Biden administration’s National Institute of Health’s Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation program.
The program was aimed at transforming the culture at NIH-funded institutions by building of a community of scientists committed to “diversity and inclusive excellence.”
The medical advocacy nonprofit Do No Harm once described the program as “The NIH’s DEI Money Machine.”
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