Brown University

The latest lawsuit follows an effort by Harvard professors and the American Association of University Professors earlier this month to sue the administration over the threats of funding cuts.\n Harvard University is suing President Trump\'s administration over its threats to freeze billions in research funding.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced last week that it was freezing $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in “multi-year contract value” to the university, saying it wanted the world\'s richest school to curtail certain diversity initiatives while also seeking to ensure it further fights anti-semitism. Harvard warned at the time that the lost funds risk halting research on cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases and more.It followed a letter of demands (PDF) on April 11 from the administration calling on the university to implement multiple wide-reaching changes, including reducing the power of students and untenured faculty in university governance, reporting international students who are “supportive of terrorism” to the federal government and bringing in an external group to audit multiple programs accused of antisemitism.The university escalated its response Monday, filing a lawsuit (PDF) in federal court in Massachusetts, accusing the Trump administration of \"withholding … federal funding as leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard.”The document explained that “within hours” of HHS announcing the funding freeze order, the university “began receiving stop work orders.”“The freezing of federal funds amounts to final agency action and has put vital medical, scientific, technological, and other research at risk,” the April 21 lawsuit states. “And that risk is growing,” the authors add, citing recent reports that the government plans to pull another $1 billion in health research funding from the university.The lawsuit argues that the administration is trying to \"coerce and control Harvard\" in a way that disregards core First Amendment protections, including the university’s right to \"academic freedom.\"In an open letter also published Monday, Harvard President Alan Garber, M.D., Ph.D., wrote that the \"consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting [...] As opportunities to reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease are on the horizon, the government is slamming on the brakes.\"Garber adds that specific research that the \"[U.S.] government has put in jeopardy\" includes that into childhood cancer survivors, as well as areas such as predicting \"the spread of infectious disease outbreaks, and to ease the pain of soldiers wounded on the battlefield.\" The Trump administration announced earlier this month that it was reviewing around $8.7 billion in funding for Harvard and the likes of Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.These “preeminent Boston hospitals” are independent corporate entities that receive government funding directly from federal agencies rather than via Harvard, yesterday’s lawsuit pointed out.“The government has not—and cannot—identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation,” the lawsuit continued.“Nor has the government acknowledged the significant consequences that the indefinite freeze of billions of dollars in federal research funding will have on Harvard’s research programs, the beneficiaries of that research, and the national interest in furthering American innovation and progress.”The latest lawsuit follows an effort by Harvard professors and the American Association of University Professors earlier this month to sue the administration over the threats of funding cuts, calling the ultimatums an existential “gun to the head” for a university.Other schools facing funding cuts from the administration include Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Cornell University, Northwestern University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to cut off funds to Harvard, though a NYT report found that the initial demands were sent in error.\n The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is halting new grant and contract payments to several universities, a move the agency has been instructed not to disclose to affected schools, according to several reports.Disbursements have been halted to Harvard University, Brown University, Northwestern University and Cornell University, plus Weill-Cornell Medical School, according to an April 16 NIH email viewed by Science.The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also told NIH to not communicate with the schools about “whether or why the funds are frozen,” according to an April 17 internal email from Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration director Michelle Bulls, which was posted on X by Nature reporter Max Kozlov.The universities were all recipients of a March 10 letter from President Donald Trump’s administration that warned 60 colleges of “potential enforcement actions” if the universities didn’t “fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.” Other recently targeted schools on the list include Princeton University and Columbia University.The newest efforts to cut off research funding come amid a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative called “Defend the Spend” that is freezing billions of dollars in healthcare grants, according to The Washington Post. The program is part of a broader push from President Donald Trump’s administration to slash spending.As of publication, the HHS and the White House had not responded to Fierce Biotech’s request for comment.Federal funding battle with Harvard escalatesMeanwhile, the Trump administration is doubling down on its efforts to cut off federal funds to Harvard, even after a report found that the initial April 11 demands to the university were allegedly sent in error.The administration plans to halt another $1 billion to the Ivy League school, according to an April 20 report from The Wall Street Journal. The proposed cut would be in addition to $2.2 billion in already canceled grants that came after Harvard publicly defied orders from the administration to make radical changes. Such demands from the government included reporting international students who are “supportive of terrorism” to authorities, and bringing in an external group to audit multiple university programs accused of antisemitism. However, the letter of demands sent to Harvard was “unauthorized” and should not have been sent in the first place, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times. Despite this, the administration is reportedly “irate” that Harvard made the letter public, which prompted the proposed further funding cuts, according to WSJ.The lost funds risk halting medical research on cancer, heart disease, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, infectious diseases and more, according to a Harvard webpage.Harvard, the HHS and the White House had not responded to Fierce’s request for comment as of publication. NIH grant reviews begin again amid agency cutsDespite widespread NIH culls, the agency appears to have restarted convening panels for certain research grant reviews, according to an April 11 report from Stat News. The requirements for grants have been updated to reflect the Trump administration’s priority of dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government.According to a government webpage last updated March 31, “some funding opportunities have been closed and others have been updated to align with agency priorities.” These updates include the removal of requirements around DEI, including Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives, diversity plans for conference grants and recruitment plans to enhance diversity in training grant applications.The HHS has not yet responded to Fierce’s questions about further specifics related to the “closed” opportunities.  Late last week, a leaked Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plan proposed 40% budget cuts for the NIH, which would bring the agency’s funds from $47 billion to $27 billion, according to a report from The Washington Post.The preliminary budget document, labeled “Not For Distribution, 04/10/2025,” was not authenticated by HHS.

Cornell received more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense on April 8, the university said. Affected research includes work on cancer, robotics, superconductors and other subjects.\n The Trump administration’s effort to slash federal funding to universities has found its latest targets, with the government reportedly freezing $1 billion in funds to Cornell University and $790 million to Northwestern University.Both schools are facing funding cuts due to ongoing investigations into alleged antisemitism on their campuses, according to reports from The New York Times and Fox News.On March 10, Cornell and Northwestern were included on a Department of Education list of 60 universities that were “under investigation for Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.” The list also included other recently targeted schools Brown University, Harvard University, Princeton University and Columbia University.“Cornell is aware of media reports suggesting that more than $1 billion in federal grants have been frozen,” Cornell’s president, provost and provost for medical affairs said in a joint statement on April 8. “While we have not received information that would confirm this figure, earlier today Cornell received more than 75 stop work orders from the Department of Defense related to research that is profoundly significant to American national defense, cybersecurity, and health.”Research affected by the freeze includes work on cancer, robotics and superconductors, among other topics, according to Cornell’s statement. Northwestern has also not received official word of the funding freeze from the government, but the university is aware of the media reports, a spokesperson for the university told Fierce Biotech in an email.“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and life-saving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” the spokesperson said. “This type of research is now at jeopardy.”“The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress,” the Northwestern spokesperson added.Unlike the other schools, the University of Pennsylvania had $175 million in funding frozen not because of antisemitism but because a transgender athlete competed on the school’s women’s swimming team in 2022. The athlete’s ability to compete was in full compliance with NCAA rules and applicable laws, Penn president J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., said in a March 25 statement.