Spencer Foundation (May 6, 2025)

The Spencer Foundation, in collaboration with The Kapor Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation have developed a Rapid Response Bridge Grant opportunity for researchers whose grants have been terminated by NSF. More information is available here.

National Science Foundation (April 25, 2025)

On Friday April 25 NSF released another round of grant terminations. This round included 701 grants, adding to the 406 that were previously terminated on April 18. This crowd-sourced table is tracking the terminations (currently it only includes about 100 of the grants canceled on the 25th). Brian Stone, NSF’s former Chief of Staff, is acting in the role of Director since Director Sethuraman Panchanathan’s resignation on April 24, 2025. The NSF website continues to be updated to reflect revised priorities and implementation, including one recently FAQ added on appealing terminations (See # 16). Reports also indicate that award supplements may be paused, and another round of deferred resignations is in the works. Additional information is available here Nature: Hundreds more NSF grants terminated after agency director resigns.

National Science Foundation Updates (April 24, 2025)

Link to a list of recent National Science Foundation (NSF) terminations.

State Assembly Budget Subcommittee Hearing on the Impact of Current Events in DC on the UC system (April 23, 2025)

Provost Newman testified on behalf of the University of California. Archived committee hearing video is available here. Provost Newman’s comments begin at 1:03:17 of the video. Questions from legislators begin at 1:16:07. The hearing agenda is available here.

National Science Foundation Updates (April 22, 2025)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued guidance regarding its Implementation of Recent Executive Orders and Updates on NSF Priorities.

Federal Landscape Updates* (April 7, 2025)

White House Actions
President Trump signed a letter to OSTP Director Michael Kratsios detailing a roadmap for a "Golden Age of American Innovation." His three key goals include securing U.S. leadership in emerging technologies, revitalizing the science and technology enterprise, and ensuring innovation drives economic growth.

Department of Education
Executive Action and APLU Response Regarding Department of Education
Just after his Senate confirmation, President Trump signed an Executive Order to begin the process of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education (ED). APLU President Mark Becker released a statement underscoring critical areas of ED’s responsibility while seeking common ground on reducing regulatory overreach. Although fully ending the agency would require congressional action, the administration is taking steps to reduce staffing and responsibilities.

Office for Civil Rights Initiates Title VI Investigations into Institutions of Higher Education
Introduces On March 14, the ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced investigations into 45 universities for “allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs” by partnering with the Ph.D. Project, an organization that works to diversify the business school professoriate. OCR also is investigating seven institutions for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation.”

Earlier, on March 10, OCR sent letters to 60 universities that are presently under investigation for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment, under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits institutions receiving federal funds from discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.

Reduction in Force (RIF)
On March 11, the Department of Education initiated a RIF to reduce staffing by nearly 2,000 employees, or approximately 50%. The RIF includes nearly 600 staff members who accepted voluntary resignation agreements.

The APLU sent a letter to Secretary McMahon on March 13th focused on possible impacts to student aid processing, federal higher education data, and ED postsecondary education grants that further the national interest. The following day, ED Acting Undersecretary James Bergeron, in a letter to “Higher Education Stakeholders,” further outlined plans for the Department’s staffing and impacts to various components.

Department of Defense
Cuts in Spending
The Department of Defense plans to cut $580 million in programs, contracts, and grants deemed misaligned with the Administration’s priorities. Targeted grants are in areas of social programs, climate change, social science, Covid-19 pandemic response, and other areas. Also included in the cuts are a $6 million grant to decarbonize emissions from Navy ships, a $5.2 million grant to diversify the Navy and a $9 million university grant for developing equitable AI and machine learning models. This action follows the recent termination of the Minerva Research Initiative, a social and behavioral sciences grant program.

Final FY25 Budget Impact on DOD
The newly enacted FY25 funding legislation cuts the DOD R&D budget by 5% or more across the service branches. The bill also cuts FY25 funding for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) by 57 percent from FY24 levels.

Department of Energy
Politico shares that the Department of Energy is targeting cancellation of grants and loans under the Inflation Reduction Act, including any program or project that has spent less than 45 percent of its appropriated funding under the IRA. An initial list of proposed project elimination includes $8 billion for hydrogen hubs, $7 billion for carbon capture hubs, $6.3 billion for industrial demonstrations, $500 million for long-duration energy storage, $133 million for the Liftoff program for accelerating new technology development and $50 million for distributed energy programs.

Department of Health and Human Services
HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again
Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an agency restructuring including a reduction of 10,000 full-time employees, a consolidation of 28 HHS divisions into 15 with a new Administration for a Healthy America, and the establishment of new priorities on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins aimed to end America’s epidemic of chronic illness. Secretary Kennedy also released a video message and fact sheet on the announcement.

Rescission of the Final Scientific Integrity Policy of the National Institutes of Health
The NIH has rescinded its Final Scientific Integrity Policy to align with the administration’s priorities. NIH will adhere to the HHS Scientific Integrity Policy to advance scientific integrity goals.

Grant Updates
The HHS released a list of terminated grants as part of the Department’s actions to comply with this administration’s priorities. The list of terminations was published through HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System and includes NIH awards. DHHS plans to update this list on a weekly basis. StatNews reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is sending termination notices to grantees focused on vaccine hesitancy, health equity, climate change, and other topics.

Regarding future grants, Science reports that NIH will resume posting grant solicitations after a two-month pause, but all notices will now require approval from HHS and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to align with Trump administration priorities. NIH Deputy Director Tara Schwetz has also been placed on administrative leave, making her the third deputy director to depart under the new administration.

National Science Foundation
Science reports a nearly 50% decline in new NSF grants since President Trump took office, resulting in over $400 million less in research funding. According to the article, the education directorate's awards fell from 120 to 12 ($64M to $6M), engineering from 351 to 63 ($133M to $20M), and computing from 264 to 115 ($71M to $48M). The Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships experienced a dramatic decrease in funding, from $190M to $19M, with awards falling from 174 to 83.  NSF continues to provide updated information regarding recent executive orders and their impact on the community. Contact NSF regarding any questions here.

National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST is piloting a new AI Standards Zero Drafts project to broaden participation and speed up AI standards development. This initiative will gather stakeholder input to create preliminary “zero drafts”—science-backed, stakeholder-driven standards proposals—before submission to private sector standardization bodies.

NASA
NASA Terminating $420 Million in Contracts
SpaceNews reports that NASA is terminating contracts which the agency says are redundant or “misaligned” with its core priorities. Cancellations include contracts for change management support services.

Senate Introduces NASA Authorization Bill
The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2025 was re-introduced in the Senate on a bipartisan basis on March 11th. The bill recommends one year authorization of NASA at $25.5 billion in FY25, a slight increase over the agency’s FY24 budget of $24.9 billion. The bill would direct NASA to accelerate work on commercial space stations and address cost overruns on science programs.

National Humanities Alliance Statement on Threats to the National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Humanities Alliance issued a statement on April 1st in response to DOGE's proposed severe staff and funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), jeopardizing grants that support education, cultural institutions, and communities across the country.

Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which funds museums and libraries nationwide, has been effectively shut down under a Trump executive order. Politico reports that staff were placed on leave as part of a plan to eliminate the agency, sparking concerns over the future of cultural and educational programs.

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*Source: APLU