Fed Update: COGR News Digest

3/30/26The Conversation

Panicking scientists, canceled experiments – federal funding cuts turned my work as a research dean into crisis management

Under normal conditions, a major part of my job is reducing barriers for faculty, staff and students engaged in innovative research. … But none of us in research leadership positions around the country had ever faced anything like the Trump administration’s attacks on universities and science .

3/28/26Fortune, Opinion

Former Trump advisor: ‘Conservatives’ risk killing America’s golden goose by taxing university research

Several so-called conservative think tanks and Department of Commerce officials have proposed taxing the income that universities earn from licensing their research discoveries supported by government grants. By effectively taxing research and development (R&D), the engine of growth, the proposals threaten to discourage innovation in semiconductors, energy, medicines, and other critical technologies. In addition, the government is already getting ample rewards from these R&D subsidies through its many other taxes on the incomes of the innovations generated.

3/27/26The Chronicle

In New Order, Trump Says Colleges Must Attest They Won’t Promote DEI to Receive Federal Funding

President Trump signed an executive order late Thursday that doubled down on his efforts to force colleges and other federal-funding recipients to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. The order, titled “Addressing DEI Discrimination By Federal Contractors,” directs departments and agencies to insert a clause in all federal contracts requiring an attestation that colleges “will not engage in any racially discriminatory DEI activities.

See also

Sources: White House to propose 20 percent cut to NIH funding

The White House is expected to ask Congress to cut National Institutes of Health spending by 20 percent in the president’s fiscal 2027 budget request, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the planning. The budget request, slated for release next week, reflects President Donald Trump’s policy priorities and acts as a guide to lawmakers as they draft appropriations bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Cuts of that size would be a step down from the 40 percent reductions the Trump White House proposed last year, but would still represent a massive blow to the biomedical research agency, and one that would get major push back from lawmakers of both parties

Breaking DefenseSee also

Harvard, MIT Again Win Right to CRISPR Tech Over Nobel Laureates

The lab notebook of Nobel Prize-winning scientists wasn’t enough for them to prove they invented a breakthrough gene-editing technology potentially worth millions of dollars before researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, according to a recent order. The scientists’ notebook entry from March 2012 outlining the elements of a CRISPR-Cas9 system and their subsequent provisional patent application two months later demonstrate knowledge of some concepts, but not all to gain ownership of technology in a patent issued to competing scientists at the Broad Institute, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board said in a Thursday order .

3/26/26

Trump Administration Begins Inquiries Into 3 Medical Schools in Show of Power (New York Times

The Trump administration has opened investigations into admissions policies at three major medical schools, expanding the federal government’s pressure campaign beyond campus culture and taking aim at the heart of scientific authority in the United States.

3/26/26C&EN, COGR Director Cindy Hope Quoted

Universities forge a bumpy new path on indirect research costs

“The FAIR model was developed to say, ‘Here’s what the costs are,’ not ‘Here’s what the government should pay for’ necessarily,” Hope says. “I don’t think anyone anticipates that the federal government will, or should, pay 100% of the allocable cost.”

3/26/26AIP

White House Announces PCAST Members

President Donald Trump announced yesterday the first 13 members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, almost all of whom are current or former CEOs from major tech companies…. Previous PCAST cohorts included a mix of university researchers and experts from major companies. … The latest membership appears to mark a striking departure, although the White House announcement noted that PCAST can have up to 24 members and that more members will be appointed “in the near future.”

3/6/26

Trump offered a restrictive deal to universities that almost all rejected – but the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education may not be entirely dead (The Conversation) https://theconversation.com/trump-offered-a-restrictive-deal-to-universities-that-almost-all-rejected-but-the-compact-for-academic-excellence-in-higher-education-may-not-be-entirely-dead-275203

Although the proposed agreement has received little public attention in the past few months, as a sociologist who has studied race and inequality, I think it is important to understand what the document says…. Despite the compact’s lack of support among universities, the Trump administration has indicated it may revise the plan . In an interview on Jan. 21, 2026, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the administration is working on an updated version. “There was a draft version, preliminary version, that went out that was intended to be sent to universities to get their reaction from it. … We are working on developing the right kind of compact with some input that we’re already getting,” McMahon said in an interview with The Daily Signal.