Our Campaigns
Since our founding in 2025, the 27 UNIHTED community has developed campaigns and informational projects, and supported each other in our efforts to disseminate the results. Volunteers contribute to projects in their own capacities, as they advocate for issues that affect the biomedical research workforce, our federal workforce, and the future of the scientific enterprise.
The Bethesda Declaration Movement
On June 9, 2025, hundreds of NIH workers released the Bethesda Declaration, a letter outlining their concerns about new NIH policies that were disrupting the future of science and harming the public.
In 2026, the Bethesda Declaration Organizers released The Bethesda Declaration: One Year Later, highlighting the ongoing negative impacts of these unethical and unlawful policies and reaffirming their concern for the future of scientific research. Read more about this movement.
The Probationary Project
In February 2025, thousands of probationary federal employees across multiple agencies were terminated or placed on indefinite leave. A federal court later ruled the firings unlawful but noted that many of the employees had “moved on” by the time of the ruling. A group of volunteer, fired probationary employees wanted to know whether that was accurate. They developed a survey to gather data describing probationary employees’ experiences. Read more about the results from this grassroots project.
Reauthorize SBIR
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) programs, also known as “America’s Seed Fund,” support innovation by providing grant funding to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Multiple agencies across the federal government offer competitive funding through the SBIR/STTR program. Projects funded through these opportunities deliver a positive return on investment, create jobs and lead to innovation and new technologies. Unfortunately, funding for the program was allowed to lapse for months, from September 30, 2025 to April 13, 2026. 27 UNIHTED advocated for the program reauthorization, sharing information about the importance of the program and holding meetings with congressional staffers. Read more about this successful effort and how you can still advocate for this impactful program.
Biohealth Beats
Storytelling is a powerful tool to communicate, and 27 UNIHTED created Biohealth Beats to highlight the devastating impacts of funding interruptions and to illustrate the personal impact of the recent changes to the research enterprise. Read our community members’ stories and learn about how to share your own story.
