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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to fund a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute study examining links between vaccines and autism — a widely debunked theory that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said deserves further investigation.

The theory that immunizations may cause autism is a cornerstone of the anti-vaccine movement, which has been gaining in prominence since the Covid-19 pandemic and has been championed by Kennedy. The health secretary has refused to denounce the possibility that vaccines could cause autism, even in direct questioning by senators last week.

Kennedy has promised that the US government will release a report detailing the causes of autism in September. The National Institutes of Health has announced $50 million in grants to study the issue.

A post on a government website on Thursday said the CDC intends to award the contract to the university in Troy, New York. The funding amount was not listed. Other universities and research institutes are allowed to apply for the grant within a 15-day window, the notice said.

Juergen Hahn, a biomedical engineer and data scientist who has conducted research on autism risk factors, is the intended recipient, a spokesperson for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute said in a statement.

“He is renowned for the quality and rigor of his research,” the spokesperson said. “If this project is awarded, he intends to publish the results of his work at the conclusion.”

Hahn, who is director of the school’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, has used large databases of medical records in studies to separate children with autism into subgroups based on their behavior and other medical conditions. The groups also can be associated with the mother’s prenatal risk factors, according to the university.

Rensselaer was chosen for the contract because it has “a unique ability to link children to maternal cohorts using proprietary databases and de-identified data sets,” the government said in its posting. A 2022 study published in Autism Research with Hahn as the senior author was conducted using a database from UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s Optum Labs, where one of his co-authors was a visiting fellow.

CDC and HHS did not respond to requests for comment.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said Monday that HHS has not started writing the report about the potential causes of autism. A Wall Street Journal story on Sept. 5 said the paper would likely contain a passage linking the neurological disorder to use of the active ingredient in Kenvue Inc.’s Tylenol during pregnancy.

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