7 /30/25: Duke Faces Multiple Federal Investigations, $108M Funding Freeze (Inside Higher Ed) The Departments of Education and Health and Human Services are investigating Duke University and the Duke Law Journal for allegedly violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race and national origin, the agencies announced Monday. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/07/30/duke-faces-108m-funding-freeze-multiple-investigations
See also: US government probes Duke University in latest federal funding threat (Reuters) https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-government-probes-duke-university-latest-federal-funding-threat-2025-07-28/
7/30/25: NIH director says cuts aim to reduce ‘ideological research,’ focus on health (Washington Post) Some scientists say that the Trump administration has forced the NIH “to politicize research” with cuts to research on health disparities and gender identity. Jay Bhattacharya says he aims to focus on chronic diseases, but he faces criticism over funding freezes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/07/29/nih-trump-bhattacharya-budget/
7/30/25: Sleuths and scientific institutions are not rivals (Nature) For years, scientific sleuths have been catching and drawing attention to instances of falsification, fabrication and plagiarism in science. But a recent survey of sleuths and research-integrity personnel shows that sleuths — some of whom also work full-time as scientists — have different views on how to deal with integrity concerns compared with research-integrity officers at institutions such as publishers and universities. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02347-7
7/29/25: Trump tightens reins on foreign students in multifront immigration crackdown on universities (The Hill) Dreamers, foreign students seeking visas and potentially even those looking to work in the country after graduation have all found themselves caught in the crossfire as Trump seeks to curb immigration while also cracking down on colleges and universities. https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5424114-trump-immigration-crackdown-international-students-columbia-harvard-university-college/
7/29/25: Trump Administration Scraps Effort to Pause Health-Research Funding (Wall Street Journal) A Trump administration effort to block all funding that flows to outside health researchers was scrapped Tuesday evening after senior White House officials intervened, people familiar with the matter said. The funds—billions of dollars to study diabetes, cancer and more—are set to flow again, the people said. https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-administration-puts-new-chokehold-on-billions-in-health-research-funding-19660215?st=dzjv5M
See also: Trump administration halts, then releases, NIH research funding (Washington Post) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/29/trump-administration-nih-funding/
7/29/25: The Big Ten Rises Up Against Trump (New Republic) “The goal of the Mutual Academic Defense Compact is threefold: protect academic freedom, defend institutional integrity, and promote the scholarly enterprise,” Boxer told me in May. He and his Big Ten colleagues, he said, are “deeply concerned on an existential level about the entire enterprise of higher education.” https://newrepublic.com/article/198355/big-ten-conference-colleges-trump-fight
7/28/25: Odds of winning NIH grants plummet as new funding policy and spending delays bite (Science) Concerns are rising among researchers that President Donald Trump’s administration is finding new ways to shrink the U.S. biomedical research enterprise even as the White House’s request to cut the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) budget by 40% in 2026 meets resistance in Congress. https://www.science.org/content/article/odds-winning-nih-grants-plummet-new-funding-policy-and-spending-delays-bite
See also: NIH is shrinking the number of research projects it funds due to a new Trump policy (STAT) https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/29/nih-cancer-institute-shrink-number-of-funded-research-grants/
7/28/25: New analysis predicts sprawling effects of proposed NIH budget cuts (STAT) Initial analyses of the Trump administration’s proposed National Institutes of Health budget cuts have overlooked key aspects of their long-term economic and health impact, according to a newly released paper , which suggests the effects will be sprawling and ultimately cost the country more than is being saved through the cuts. https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/28/nih-cuts-new-study-says-long-term-they-will-cost-more-than-saved/
7/28/25: Harvard Is Said to Be Open to Spending Up to $500 Million to Resolve Trump Dispute (New York Times) Harvard University has signaled a willingness to meet the Trump administration’s demand to spend as much as $500 million to end its dispute with the White House as talks between the two sides intensify, four people familiar with the negotiations said. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/us/politics/trump-harvard-payment.html
See also: Trump administration wants Harvard to pay far more than Columbia as part of settlement (AP) https://apnews.com/article/harvard-fine-settlement-columbia-trump-7d67ce469278232d137d46e9ec690e16
See also: Trump’s billion-dollar settlement spree (Axios) https://www.axios.com/2025/07/30/trump-harvard-settlement-dei-lawsuit
7/28/25: Purported Plan to Charge Patent Owners a Percentage of Patent Value is Fraught with Peril (IP Watchdog) The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Trump Administration is considering a major change to patent fees, which would charge patent holders somewhere between 1% to 5% of the overall value of the patent. https://ipwatchdog.com/2025/07/28/purported-plan-charge-patent-owners-percentage-patent-value-fraught-peril/id=190705/
