Top US universities turn to corporations after Trump grant cuts
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Faculty, trustees, and administrators at institutions like Harvard are now in discussions with major tech and pharmaceutical companies to replace lost government funding.
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People walk between buildings on December 17, 2024 on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachussets, US (AP)
Leading US universities are increasingly turning to corporate partners for financial support after the Trump administration canceled hundreds of federal research grants, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Faculty, trustees, and administrators at institutions like Harvard are now in discussions with major tech and pharmaceutical companies to replace lost government funding, the report said.
At Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where over 70% of research funding typically comes from federal sources, nearly all of that support has vanished due to Trump's executive orders. The school had anticipated more than $200 million in funding this year.
On April 15, the US Department of Education announced the cancellation of $2.2 billion in funds to Harvard. Kristy Noem, US Secretary of Homeland Security, said on May 22 that the institution could no longer accept international students and that current foreign students must transfer to other colleges.
On May 23, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the administration's prohibition on foreign enrollment, and the court granted it a Temporary Restraining Order later that day.
The lawsuit alleges that the administration’s decision to withdraw financial backing jeopardizes academic independence and violates constitutional rights.
According to the lawsuit, the US government’s actions threaten essential research conducted on Harvard’s campus and form part of a broader attempt to penalize the institution for defending its legal rights.
The complaint emphasizes that federal funding is vital for "lifesaving and pathbreaking research" at the university.
In early June, faculty members and researchers at the University of California filed a lawsuit against Trump and several government agencies over research funding cuts, NBC News reported.
The professors planned to file the first-ever class action lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's severe reductions in research funding and grants, which have already resulted in layoffs and the discontinuation of many projects, according to the broadcaster.
Claudia Polsky, the founding director of the University of California's environmental law clinic, filed the case late Wednesday in the United States District Court in San Francisco.
The station quoted Polsky as saying that while she had not directly been hurt by the budget loss, she was inspired to join colleagues in a lawsuit without institutional backing.
