A federal joint task force representing eight federal agencies is stripping an additional $450 million in grant funding to Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University due to its failure to address what the task force called “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment” on campus, according to a May 13 task force news release.
In a May 5 letter, the Trump administration informed Harvard that it would no longer provide the university with federal research funds after a late-March review of its nearly $9 billion in federal contracts and grants.
In mid-April, the Trump administration paused $2.2 billion in multiyear grants, including a $60 million contract, to Harvard after it rejected federal demands as a condition to continue funding. The $2.2 billion was terminated last week, the release said.
The news comes after a May 8 analysis published in the JAMA Network Open revealed the Trump administration had terminated 694 National Institutes of Health grants between Feb. 28 and April, amounting to $1.81 billion. Of the cuts, more than $544 million had not been spent.
“This disruption threatens the integrity and continuity of ongoing research studies
supported by the frozen or terminated funding, as well as their future viability,” Harvard said in a May 13 amended complaint shared with Becker’s. “At this point, for example, Harvard does not know whether to end employment of anyone whose salary was supported by the frozen or terminated funding or what its future hiring decisions should look like. Nor does it know whether to expend funds to retain such items as cell cultures and other living and perishable materials used in research or to continue maintenance of research supplies and equipment tied to the frozen or terminated funding.”
