4/11/25: Trump May Seek Judicial Oversight of Columbia, Potentially for Years (New York Times) The Trump administration may seek to have a federal judge enforce any deal it reaches with Columbia University in an arrangement that could ensure that the White House has a hand in the school’s dealings for years to come, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/nyregion/columbia-trump-consent-decree.html
4/11/25: Request for Information: Deregulation (Federal Register Notice, OMB. Comments Due May 12, 2025) OMB solicits ideas for deregulation from across the country. Commenters should identify rules to be rescinded and provide detailed reasons for their rescission. OMB invites comments about any and all regulations currently in effect. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/11/2025-06316/request-for-information-deregulation
4/11/25: Through emails and social media, colleges discover federal funds are frozen (Washington Post) With billions in funding threatened and a long-standing close partnership with the federal government at stake, university leaders scrambled to consider options. Some considered whether they could bridge some costs for research or scale back ambitious projects. Other options included finding ways to reach consensus with the government or to challenge it in court. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/11/elite-colleges-trump-federal-funding-freeze-email/
4/11/25: The Ripple Effects of Draining the Ph.D. Pool (Inside Higher Ed) Deep cuts to federal research funding and crackdowns on international students could mean far fewer graduate students next fall and beyond. If that happens, undergraduates, faculty and research productivity would all suffer. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/graduate-students-and-postdocs/2025/04/11/how-drop-phd-students-could-affect-colleges
4/10/25: Researchers from China and five other ‘countries of concern’ barred from NIH databases (Science) The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has barred scientists in China and five other “countries of concern” from accessing 21 biomedical databases, which hold information on genetic variation, cancer cases, neurodegenerative diseases, and more. The 2 April move by President Donald Trump’s administration, which ramps up a longer running effort to prevent foreign access to data deemed sensitive, also halts projects involving the databases that include collaborators in the named countries. https://www.science.org/content/article/researchers-china-and-five-other-countries-concern-barred-nih-databases
4/10/25: How Trump 2.0 is slashing NIH-backed research — in charts (Nature) To understand the extent and breadth of these actions, which have so far clawed back more than US$2.3 billion allocated to US researchers, Nature tapped into a scientist-led effort to track these cuts (see ‘How Nature analysed NIH’s grant terminations’ in supplemental info). Our analysis reveals the project topics, NIH institutes and US states affected the most. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01099-8
4/10/25: Trump Administration Wants to Install Federal Oversight of Columbia University (Wall Street Journal) A consent decree, which can last for years, would give a federal judge responsibility for ensuring Columbia changes its practices along lines laid out by the federal government. If such a decree is in place, Columbia would have to comply with it. If a judge determines the school is out of compliance, it could be held in contempt of court, punishable by penalties including fin es. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-consent-decree-trump-federal-funding-2f4c4690
4/10/25: Trump administration freezes $1.8 billion for Cornell and Northwestern (AP) The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in federal funding for Cornell University and about $790 million for Northwestern University while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, the White House said. https://apnews.com/article/trump-cornell-northwestern-federal-funding-frozen-37192b49730304960929dcb72f09469c
4/10/25: NSF, NIH Slash Support for Early-Career Scientists (Inside Higher Ed) Both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health are slashing funding support for graduate students and early-career researchers as President Donald Trump continues dramatic federal budget cuts. Since Trump took office in January, the two agencies—which send billions in funding to research universities each year—have stalled grant reviews, fired scores of workers and terminated or flagged hundreds of active grants that conflict with the administration’s ideological goals. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/04/10/nsf-nih-slash-support-early-career-scientists
4/10/25: GAO says OMB takedown of apportionments website violates federal statutes (FedScoop) The watchdog said OMB Director Russell Vought’s move to disappear the public tracker of funds appropriated by Congress is “very concerning” and undercuts transparency. https://fedscoop.com/gao-omb-takedown-apportionments-website-federal-statutes/
4/10/25: Trump administration begins interviewing UC faculty as part of antisemitism probe (Politico) The employees, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, said federal officials have begun reaching out and speaking with faculty members last week, raising concern from faculty that the federal government is trying to pit them against each other as President Donald Trump continues to cut funding from top universities around the country. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/10/trump-administration-begins-interviewing-uc-faculty-as-part-of-antisemitism-probe-00282965
4/9/25: Exclusive: NIH freezes all research grants to Columbia University (Science) Weeks after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pull $250 million in biomedical research grants to Columbia University, the agency is freezing all remaining grant money owed to the university until further notice, according to internal documents seen by Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-freezes-all-research-grants-columbia-university
4/9/25: The self-inflicted death of American science has already begun (Vox) America has become a scientific colossus not just because it has spent more than any other nation on research and development , but because it made itself a magnet for global scientific talent, from superstar researchers to lowly junior scientists like Karikó. … Now the Trump administration is working to destroy all of that through catastrophic funding cuts and blatantly nativist immigration policies . And the result will be nothing less than an act of national suicide. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/407586/immigration-crackdown-foreign-students-science-innovation-funding
4/8/25: From Innovation to Employment: The Economic Impact of IP (US Chamber) Use the interactive map below to visualize the economic impact of IP across the United States. It presents key indicators such as the existing stock of IP and the broader economic effects of R&D, including job creation, spending, and compensation. It also highlights worker compensation in IP-related roles and the value of IP exports. https://www.uschamber.com/intellectual-property/from-innovation-to-employment?state=ga
4/8/25: The Trump administration should rescind the NIH ‘access planning’ rule (STAT, Opinion) While a noble policy in theory, in practice it may actually cause damage to those it is supposed to help. https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/08/nih-access-planning-rule-innovation-licensees-patents-trump/
