3/19/25: Fallout from Trump research cuts expands across academia (Axios) Trump administration spending cuts and freezes to federal grants are roiling major academic medical research programs, prompting layoffs, and leading administrators to abandon studies and rescind admissions offers to graduate students. Why it matters: Experts predict the face of university research could be permanently changed, affecting work on treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes, among other conditions, along with studies on the underpinnings of disease. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/19/universities-medical-research-cuts-nih-trump
3/18/25: OPINION: Here’s why we cannot permit America’s partnership with higher education to weaken or dissolve (Hechinger Report, Ted Mitchell, President, ACE) The president has made clear that colleges and universities face a moment of unprecedented challenge. The partnership the federal government forged with American higher education long ago, which for generations has paid off spectacularly for our country’s civic health, economic well-being and national security, appears in the eyes of many to be suddenly vulnerable. America must not permit this partnership to weaken or dissolve. No nation has ever built up its people by tearing down its schools. Higher education builds America — and together, we will fight to ensure it continues to do so. https://hechingerreport.org/opinion-heres-why-we-cannot-permit-americas-partnership-with-higher-education-to-weaken-or-dissolve/
3/18/25: After Columbia’s ‘nightmare,’ dozens more universities brace for Trump NIH cuts (Science) Columbia’s situation has rocked major research universities nationwide as the Trump administration has warned it is investigating 59 additional schools for antisemitism. As Science went to press, many were waiting to see whether Columbia sues to block the funding elimination, as legal experts say it could do successfully. “They would have a very, very strong likelihood” of winning a court order to “unpause” funding,” says Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan and former general counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), NIH’s parent agency. https://www.science.org/content/article/after-columbia-s-nightmare-dozens-more-universities-brace-trump-nih-cuts
See also: Medical Research at Columbia Is Imperiled After Trump Terminates Funding (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/nyregion/columbia-research-grants-trump.html
See also: Columbia University is being denied due process (The Hill, Opinion) https://thehill.com/opinion/education/5196149-columbia-university-is-being-denied-due-process/%C2%A0/
3/18/25: Publishers Embrace AI as Research Integrity Tool ( Inside Higher Ed) The $19 billion academic publishing industry is adopting AI-powered tools to improve the quality of peer-reviewed research and speed up production. The latter goal yields “obvious financial benefit” for publishers, one expert said. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/research/2025/03/18/publishers-adopt-ai-tools-bolster-research-integrity
3/17/25: Trump’s attacks on higher ed could provide a chance to reimagine the university (Vox) Vice President JD Vance has said that “the universities are the enemy.” Attacking science and higher education, whether under the guise of reducing taxpayer waste or punishing antisemitism , was always part of this administration’s plan . But its haphazard destabilization of the scientific enterprise won’t automatically funnel would-be biomedical PhDs into pharmaceutical or biotech companies, especially when there already aren’t enough jobs in those industries now to absorb the flood of highly educated people applying for them. If turned away from grad school, it’s more likely that young scientists will take their talents to other countries , or leave the field altogether. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/403869/trump-university-funding-cuts-columbia-phd
3/17/25: What’s in store for US science as funding bill averts government shutdown (Nature) If federal spending follows current trends, the 15 March ‘continuing resolution’ agreement means that overall funding for research and development during the current fiscal year, which ends on 30 September, will probably ring in around US$193 billion — a relatively modest 3.5% cut compared with spending in the last fiscal year, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC. Part of that cut is coming out of the budget for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world’s largest funder of biomedical research . https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00827-4
3/17/25: NIH Again Tosses Grant Applications for Program That Funds Minority Researchers (The Chronicle) After previously backtracking, the National Institutes of Health has once again withdrawn applications to a high-profile predoctoral grant program that were submitted with a diversity notation, effectively blocking many early-career academics from underrepresented backgrounds from being funded. Applications to the NIH’s F31 diversity fellowship apparently won’t be reviewed “while NIH undertakes a review of its research priorities,” according to a Monday email from an NIH official that was shared with The Chronicle. But applications for the standard F31 fellowship are still being considered as usual. https://www.chronicle.com/article/nih-again-tosses-grant-applications-for-program-that-funds-minority-researchers
3/17/25: Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm (New York Times) The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/climate/trump-eliminates-epa-science.html
See also: EPA plans to cut scientific research program, could fire more than 1,000 employees (AP) https://apnews.com/article/epa-science-layoffs-trump-doge-8a5743b9281e3f82afdf2cdd5f972d5f
