Rhode Island institutions to receive $18.1M in federal medical research funding

Rhode Island’s hospitals, universities, state agencies and community health providers are set to receive a sizable gift from the feds: more than $18 million in health and medical research funding, Rhode Island’s Congressional delegates announced Thursday. 

The windfall is coming from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support research work in areas like aging, addiction, mental health, diabetes, lung disease, maternal and child health, infectious disease, environmental exposure reduction, and other research endeavors related to public health.

Receiving the most is Brown University, which was awarded multiple grants including $1.87 million for aging research; $1.35 million for drug abuse and addiction research; $1.28 million for alcohol research; and $1.24 million for research in pharmacology, physiology and biological chemistry.  

Overall, Brown accounts for almost half the total, at about $9.16 million across 10 grants. 

The second largest sum went to the Rhode Island Department of Health, with seven grants totaling $2.06 million. The Miriam Hospital has two grants valued at $1.61 million, and the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services was awarded two grants worth a total of $1.54 million. 

Other recipients named in the announcement include Tri-County Community Action Agency, the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital, Bradley Hospital, Butler Hospital, and Thundermist Health Center. Most recipients received between one and three awards. 

Rhode Island’s congressional delegation has often been at odds with federal funding priorities since President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office last January. Research funding has at times been more volatile and uncertain than it was during the Biden administration, with fights occurring over monies for the National Institutes of Health and research reimbursement policies. 

Federal funding for HHS, however, has largely stayed on the same plateau. The federal appropriations approved for fiscal year 2026 included $116.6 billion for HHS, according to Rhode Island’s delegates. A Senate press release from March 2024 noted that, in fiscal year 2024, HHS was given $116.8 billion.

Federal dollars for fiscal year 2026 allotted funds for a number of specific investments in research areas aimed at finding new cures or treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health conditions, opioid use disorder, diabetes and other illnesses.

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Federal appropriations bundled in $30 million for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed’s Childhood Cancer STAR Act,  which supports childhood and adolescent cancer research, improves cancer surveillance in these populations, and broadens support for families who have been affected by childhood cancer.

Reed, who sits on the Senate’s Appropriations Committee, took the funding as a win for the Ocean State.

“I will continue working at the federal level to protect and expand investments that help advance pioneering medical research, strengthen public health, and promote hope and healing,” Reed said in a statement Thursday.

State agencies that received sizable awards include Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which got about $1.17 million for national training and technical assistance and another $371,000 for its AIDS Drug Assistance Program, a federal program which helps low-income individuals with HIV who are uninsured or underinsured afford the appropriate medicines.

The Rhode Island Department of Health received more than $1.08 million for family planning services, plus smaller awards ranging from $66,580 for the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to $467,030 for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for its work in helping local efforts at reducing exposure to environmental toxins.

A full list can be found on Reed’s website.