Funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) generated $94.15 billion in economic activity and supported 390,863 jobs in 2025, according to a report published March 10 by biomedical research advocacy organization United for Medical Research.
Funding delays and NIH turmoil contributed to a total economic impact reduction of $430 million compared to 2024, but the NIH got slightly more bang for its buck in 2025. In 2025, its $36.58 billion in research grants generated $2.57 for every $1 invested. The year before, the NIH awarded $36.94 billion in grants that generated $2.56 for every dollar invested, equating to a total impact of $94.58 billion.
NIH investments in 2024 and 2025 were each slightly more efficient than in 2023, when $37.8 billion in research awards led to $92.9 billion in new economic activity, or $2.46 for every dollar invested.
United for Medical Research President Caitlin Leach applauded the return on investment of NIH grants even amid “funding disruptions.” She said in the release that maintaining value will require stable funding.
While 2025’s total investment and economic impact remained relatively stable, the size of the awards NIH granted grew. Because of NIH funding delays earlier in the year connected to the government shutdown, leadership turnover and shifting political priorities, the NIH was 30% behind schedule in awarding research money.
To make up for that shortfall, the NIH deployed a budget mechanism called multi-year funding, which distributed the full value of certain grants upfront rather than annually. This allowed the NIH to spend its full budget on fewer grants.
While NIH’s budget rose to $47.49 billion from $47.35 billion in 2024, the federal financing figure for 2025 didn’t include money funneled to ARPA-H. Meanwhile, money allocated for research in 2025 was lower than in any year since 2021, and the 58,795 total grants issued were fewer than in any year since 2018.
Despite just a 1% year-over-year research budget decrease, 5,564 fewer grants were issued in 2025 compared to 2024, an 8.6% decline. The number of grants shrank by more than 10% in 19 states and the District of Columbia. In 2024, the average grant size was about $573,000; in 2025, the average rose to more than $622,000, a 9% increase.
States such as North Dakota and West Virginia saw more than a 20% drop in the number of awards, while states receiving more NIH grants—such as Maryland, Illinois and Michigan—experienced reductions of more than 10%.
Even though the average grant size increased, the report found that the success rate of those investments fell to 17%, the lowest level in 30 years.
Among the 390,863 jobs created, California added more than 54,000 positions, while Texas and New York each added around 29,000, and Massachusetts added about 28,000. All of those totals were lower than the job gains recorded in 2024, with nearly 17,000 fewer total jobs added—the lowest figure for the measure since 2021.
Last year was a tumultuous one for the NIH. The departure of its former director, Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., was compounded by other leadership vacancies and mass layoffs throughout the year. Despite federal court rulings that temporarily blocked funding cuts, the NIH continued to pull funding that didn’t align with President Donald Trump’s executive orders, including many projects connected to LGBTQ+ health issues and other diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
This year, the NIH has already seen its heart, lung and blood director as well as its neuro director exit, leaving at least half of the institutes under interim leadership. In February, members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee grilled Trump’s pick for NIH Director, Jayanta Bhattacharya, M.D., Ph.D., about his leadership, vaccine mistrust and research funding disruption.
Over the last decade, NIH funding has driven more than $822 billion in new economic activity and created more than 3.7 million jobs, the UMR report says. The research is critical to the strength of the American biotech industry; a 2023 analysis found that 354 approved drugs benefited from $187 billion in funding between 2010 and 2019.
In the release, Leach noted the importance of the NIH to the U.S. innovation economy. “At a time when global competitors are accelerating their investments in biomedical research, America cannot afford to fall behind.”