At least two dozen research grants at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University have been terminated by the federal government in recent weeks amid President Trump’s executive orders targeting diversity efforts.

Alex Likowski, a spokesman for the University of Maryland, Baltimore, said on Tuesday that the combined value of its 12 canceled contracts was $5.87 million this year, with an anticipated future funding loss of $11.6 million.

“In nearly every instance, the reason cited for cancellation is that the grant involves gender identity issues or promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Alex Likowski, a spokesman for the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

So far, only one UMB grant was listed as officially terminated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on its website.

The HHS website also lists 12 grants terminated at Johns Hopkins University valued at $6.48 million. Hopkins officials did not immediately respond to a question about how many terminations in total they have experienced so far.

“We face challenging times for the patients and families that rely on us for cures and treatments, and for the researchers dedicated to the pursuit of improving the health of all Americans,” Hopkins said in a statement. “These are cuts to research that will take away prevention strategies and treatments from American patients facing infectious and chronic diseases.”

Likowski provided an excerpt from one termination letter as a window into the Trump administration’s position on select grant funding:

“This award no longer effectuates agency priorities. Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.”

The letter went on to say that “worse, so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans. Therefore, it is the policy of NIH not to prioritize such research programs.”

Likowski said the university leadership believes the studies are important for public health and plans to seek to reverse the cancellations for many of the grants through the administrative appeals process.

“Our close partnership with federal agencies has always been productive and has enabled us to improve countless lives here at home and around the world,“ he said.

The grant funding terminated so far is only a fraction of the federal research funding allocated to the institutions. It’s unclear if there will be more terminations for research universities in the state.

Of those reported cuts at Hopkins, many involved research into HIV and other infectious diseases, and focused on certain groups of people.

Trump has issued executive orders related to what he’s labeled diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. Infectious disease research also has specifically come under fire by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine critic.

Dozens of institutions across the country have had their grants terminated.

Hopkins is often the largest recipient of NIH funding, with about $857 million in direct grant funding in fiscal 2024. NIH had already proposed cutting so-called indirect funds that come along with grant money to pay for overhead and maintenance of labs and other spaces supporting research.

The university has said that could lead to approximately $200 million in annual cuts and threatened some 600 clinical trials in cancer, pediatrics, heart disease and others. Those cuts have been challenged by Hopkins in court.

The university also lost about $800 million in funding from USAID, leading the university recently to cut 2,000 jobs in Baltimore and overseas performing humanitarian work.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore, said cuts to indirect NIH funding would mean a loss of nearly $50 million.

For the recently terminated research grants, Columbia University has by far the most canceled grants listed as terminated — close to 170 — as officials there have tangled with what Trump has labeled antisemitic protests on campus.