New report dubs Durham’s RTI International ‘ground zero’ for Trump, DOGE cuts
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Report names RTI International ground zero for DOGE-era federal cuts.
- DOGE listings show 57 grant and 52 contract terminations at RTI reported.
- RTI trimmed workforce by 35% and faces roughly $1.1 billion in lost contracts.
A new report labeled North Carolina’s RTI International “ground zero” for the effects Trump administration cuts have had on a nationwide network of independent research nonprofits.
“RTI International in Durham, North Carolina, is in a category all its own,” stated Harris Search Associates, a higher education consulting firm that looked at federal funding cancellations within the Association of Independent Research Institutes. The AIRI is an industry group of “biomedical and behavioral” research nonprofits that counts RTI, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Scripps Research among its 76 members.
Using data from the Department of Government Efficiency’s “Wall of Receipts,” Harris Search found RTI International has been notified of at least 57 grant and 52 contract terminations during the first seven months of President Donald Trump’s second term. No other AIRI member has more than eight cancellations listed.
In an email to The News & Observer, RTI International noted it is one of the biggest AIRI members and likely the only one to have implemented USAID programs. Losses through this since-shuttered foreign assistance agency have accounted for most of the organization’s losses.
The Durham nonprofit added that it has received additional project terminations since the report published, saying the combined number of ended federal contracts and grants is now 170 (the report had the total at 109).
DOGE cuts to RTI projects began in February with the gutting of the U.S. Agency for International Development and have continued, the database says, through this summer via terminations from the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Justice, Department of Education, Environmental Protection Agency and National Science Foundation. Impacted RTI research ranges from post-incarceration reintegration policies to bully and sexual misconduct prevention in schools to a global study on youth tobacco use.
“President Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to bring accountability and transparency to federal spending,” the White House website reads, “ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and effectively — and it has already saved taxpayers billions of dollars.”
DOGE categorizes ended federal contracts and grants as “savings.”
RTI reacts to cuts with layoffs and pivots
Founded in the late 1950s as an anchor tenant to Research Triangle Park, RTI International has developed into one of the nation’s most prominent research nonprofits. But with the federal government as its main client, RTI has announced four rounds of local layoffs and reduced is total workforce by more than 35% amid crushing losses this year.
Prior to its latest layoffs in September, RTI told The N&O it had 1,885 workers in North Carolina. This is down from the 2,420 employees the organization reporting having in the Triangle-area alone at the start of 2023. RTI International, which entered this year as Durham County’s ninth-largest employer.
“I’m as optimistic as I’ve ever been about RTI’s future,” RTI President and CEO Tim Gabel said in a statement Wednesday. “We’re realigning to move faster, collaborate more deeply, and serve our clients with sharper focus.”
DOGE’s database indicates RTI International has faced nearly $1.1 billion in contract cuts and more than $90 million in nixed grants. Contracts pertain to internal government operations while grants center on external societal impacts. Harris Search cautions to add context to these figures: Judges have halted some of the administration’s announced funding actions and news outlets previously highlighted accounting errors in DOGE’s initial reporting.
In a sit-down interview with The N&O this summer, Gabel said he sought to pursue more commercial health, energy and defense funding in the current political climate. On Tuesday, the nonprofit began a 15,000-square-foot expansion of its Pilot Xcelerator, which RTI says enables government agencies, industry, businesses and startups to scale emerging energy technologies like carbon capture, synthetic aviation fuel, and carbon-free ammonia for fertilizer.
This story was originally published October 15, 2025 at 3:12 PM.
