As promised, here are the updated NIH graphs with the October data. The US government shutdown meant there was actually ZERO funding awarded in October, but it is always a quiet month as we can see in previous year’s data below. Year-to-date we are only 2.5% below the 2024 total.
Figure 1: NIH Funding by month 2024 versus 2025
No, your eyesight is fine, the October figures are just sooooo small they don’t show up on the graph! In 2024 there was only $2.5m awarded, and this year zero. This is always one of the quietest months of the year.
Figure 2: NIH Funding by difference each month between 2024 and 2025
Again we’re too small for the axis, but the $0 in October 2025 means a net change of -$2.5m vs 2024.
Figure 3: NIH Funding by difference each month between 2023 and 2025
And looking further back to 2023, we can see October is always a quiet month — again too small for the graph here! — but October 2023 saw only $6.9m, October 2024 was $2.5m, and October 2025 was $0.
What can you do about it?
Those of you who had funding alerts set in SciLeads will have already seen this come through. Make sure your SciLeads filters are set to alert you of awarded grants so you can be the first to take advantage of these. Everybody wants to see the government shutdown come to an end, and normal services resume — not least to keep this funding and the innovation it powers going.
We’ll be back with a November update next month.
Register for our newsletters here to get funding news straight to your inbox.