South African scientists can once again seek funding from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), ending a 17-month disruption that had threatened major HIV, tuberculosis and other medical research programmes in one of Africa’s most important scientific hubs.
The NIH has lifted its ban on funding research projects in South Africa, reversing a policy introduced after US President Donald Trump ordered agencies in February 2025 to halt foreign aid and assistance to the country.
The decision follows an internal memo from NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, reported by Science, which concluded that NIH research grants do not constitute foreign aid and are therefore outside the scope of the executive order.
Bhattacharya argued that Congress has explicitly authorised the NIH to participate in international research collaborations and that the agency's funding mechanisms are not governed by the Foreign Assistance Act.
The restoration does not mean the US is committing $450 million in new funding to South Africa. Instead, the figure represents the scale of funding the country is estimated to have lost following the broader US funding cuts, which affected NIH programmes alongside other US-backed research and health initiatives.
