———
Coming up on 4/30: Accelerating Impact: DARPA’s Approach to Transition and Commercialization: https://learning.theari.us/products/accelerating-impact-darpas-approach-to-transition-and-commercialization-430#tab-product_tab_overview
4/25/25: Trump vs. Science (New York Times) The chaos is confusing: Isn’t science a force for good? Hasn’t it contained disease? Won’t it help us in the competition with China? Doesn’t it attract the kind of immigrants the president says he wants? In this edition of the newsletter, we break out our macroscope to make sense of the turmoil. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/briefing/trump-vs-science.html
4/25/25: Trump Administration Issues Executive Order Increasing Oversight of Foreign Funding at Universities (Akin Gump) On April 23, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) entitled “ Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities ” and issued an accompanying Fact Sheet . …Specifically, the EO highlights the Trump administration’s concern that undisclosed foreign funding may have national security risks, foreign influence implications and compromise academic integrity, citing to an unspecified study that found that from 2010 to 2016, universities failed to disclose more than half of reportable foreign gifts, and asserting that of approximately 6,000 U.S. institutions, only about 300 self-report foreign money each year. https://www.akingump.com/en/insights/alerts/trump-administration-issues-executive-order-increasing-oversight-of-foreign-funding-at-universities
See also: Trump signs orders on university accreditation, foreign gifts (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-signs-orders-university-accreditation-foreign-gifts-2025-04-23/
See also: Trump to sign order restricting foreign gifts to colleges (Politico) https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/23/trump-executive-order-college-foreign-funding-00306463
4/25/25: Trump’s first 100 days, seen through 5 lives: Grants terminated. Dreams crushed. Futures in the balance (STAT, Special Report) https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/25/trump-100-days-nih-cuts-human-impact/
4/25/25: Florida’s Own DOGE Reviews Faculty Research, Grants (Inside Higher Ed) Elon Musk’s days with DOGE appear numbered—the unelected billionaire bureaucrat said Tuesday that his time spent leading the agency-gutting U.S. Department of Government Efficiency will “ drop significantly ” next month. As Tesla’s profits plummet, the world’s richest man faces opposition from both Trump administration officials and voters. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2025/04/25/floridas-own-doge-reviewing-faculty-research-grants
4/25/25: NSF Director Resigns (Inside Higher Ed) Sethuraman Panchanathan, director of the National Science Foundation, resigned Thursday after more than five years at the helm. His resignation comes less than one week after he issued sweeping priority changes —including terminating funding for projects that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion or combating misinformation—at the independent agency that funds billions of dollars to nonmedical university research each year. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/04/25/nsf-director-panchanathan-resigns
See also: Exclusive: NSF director to resign amid grant terminations, job cuts, and controversy (Science) https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-director-resign-amid-grant-terminations-job-cuts-and-controversy
4/24/25: Big Ten university faculties push for defense compact against Trump (Washington Post) Several faculty and university senates have approved resolutions asking their leaders to sign a NATO-like agreement that would allow the institutions to share attorneys and pool financial resources in case President Donald Trump’s administration targets one of its members. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/04/24/big-10-universities-alliance-trump-attacks/
See also: Elite Universities in Trump’s Crosshairs Are Drumming Up Cash (Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-college-universities-cash-federal-funding-fa001311
4/24/25: The Leaked OMB Passback Document: What It Is and Isn’t (JD Supra) As health policy stakeholders continue to react to this document, it is important to put it into context, highlighting what it is and isn’t and explaining where we could go from here in arguably unprecedented and unpredictable times. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-leaked-omb-passback-document-what-3662708/
4/24/25: AI Research Summaries ‘Exaggerate Findings,’ Study Warns (Inside Higher Ed) Bots’ tendency to display “unwarranted confidence” and fixate on “pink elephants” is particularly risky in medical research, according to a new paper. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/artificial-intelligence/2025/04/24/ai-research-summaries-exaggerate-findings
4/24/25: Convergence and consensus (Science, Editorial, H. Holden Thorp) In these days of political instability, geopolitical tensions, and social discontent around the world, there are continued threats to the principles, conduct, and findings of science. This assault on science has been fueled by flooding the public with confusing information from both traditional and digital media. One concept that creates misunderstanding is “scientific consensus.” It’s time to stop using this shorthand and make clear what it really means. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady3211
4/24/25: How Democrats and Republicans cite science: study reveals stark differences (Nature) The United States is known for the deep polarization between its two major political parties — the right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats. Now an analysis of hundreds of thousands of policy documents reveals striking differences in partisan policymakers’ use of the scientific literature , with Democratic-led congressional committees and left-wing think tanks more likely to cite research papers than their right-wing counterparts. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01311-9
4/24/25: How Trump’s attack on universities is putting research in peril (Nature) US science-funding agencies have so far frozen or cancelled at least US$6 billion in research grants and contracts across a number of top universities (see ‘Science stalled’) as part of the Trump administration’s fight to reshape admissions, teaching and more at these institutions . Such actions have been justified in various ways, or not at all. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01289-4
4/24/25: Major European institutes join race to save US science data (Nature) Several research institutes in Germany are joining a worldwide grassroots effort to save science data sets that researchers fear could be deleted or decommissioned on the orders of US President Donald Trump’s administration, Nature has learnt. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01309-3
4/24/25: NSF halves graduate fellowship (Chemical and Engineering News) The US National Science Foundation announced the winners of its prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) award earlier this month. In a typical year, the NSF awards around 2,000 students a fellowship, which provides 3 years’ worth of financial support for their doctoral or master’s studies. But this April, the NSF granted only 1,000 awards. https://cen.acs.org/policy/research-funding/NSF-halves-graduate-fellowship-awards/103/web/2025/04
4/24/25: Anti-DEI Guidance Letter Put On Hold, for Now (Inside Higher Ed) Several colleges scrubbed their campuses and websites of DEI-related language and shuttered offices in order to comply with the letter’s sweeping demands. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/politics-elections/2025/04/24/education-departments-anti-dei-guidance-blocked
4/24/25: New Carnegie Classification Aims to Shake Up How Higher Ed Sees Itself (The Chronicle) Carnegie analysts previously promised this year’s revision would be “ the biggest update ” ever, and had already rolled out one aspect of their overhaul: their research labels . In the full revision published on Thursday, colleges got new core classifications based on their size and the degrees they most commonly bestow. https://www.chronicle.com/article/new-carnegie-classification-aims-to-shake-up-how-higher-ed-sees-itself
4/23/25: Reminder: Application Requirements for Projects Involving Activities Outside of the United States or Partnerships with International Collaborators. (NIH NOT-OD-25-098) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-098.html
4/22/25: How DOGE got into the National Science Foundation (FedScoop) Members of the Department of Government Efficiency have made their way into the National Science Foundation, as grants throughout the agency are being terminated…As part of the arrangement, Farritor has a “Budget, Finance, and Administration” clearance, which a source said allows him to view and modify the agency’s funding opportunity system. https://fedscoop.com/national-science-foundation-nsf-doge-grants-data-systems/
See also: Here’s All the Health and Human Services Data DOGE Has Access To (Wired) https://www.wired.com/story/doge-data-access-hhs/
4/21/25: As Harvard battle escalates, HHS directs NIH not to tell universities about new grant freezes: reports (Fierce Biotech) 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. https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/nih-directed-not-tell-universities-about-new-grant-freezes-harvard-battle-escalates
DOE PF 2025-23 Compliance with Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws: (DOE Policy Flash) https://www.energy.gov/management/pf-2025-23-compliance-federal-anti-discrimination-laws
