Judge Blocks NSF’s Funding Cuts

By Nate Raymond and Blake Brittain

(Reuters) – A federal judge has halted the National Science Foundation (NSF) from significantly reducing research funding to universities. This ruling marks a legal setback for President Donald Trump’s administration, which has attempted to decrease government support for academic research.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, in Boston, ruled against a May policy by NSF that limited universities’ reimbursement for administrative and facility costs associated with grant-funded research, labeling it as “arbitrary and capricious.”

NSF and the White House did not respond immediately to requests for comments about this ruling.

The NSF, with a $9 billion budget for scientific research, had adopted the policy after cancelling numerous grants that conflicted with Trump’s priorities. The administration also suspended billions in funding to several universities, including Harvard.

The controversial policy, announced on May 2, capped the reimbursement of indirect costs at 15% of direct research funding, significantly less than what many universities had historically negotiated. This meant for every $100 in direct funding, only $15 would go toward covering indirect costs such as lab maintenance or staff salaries.

The administration argued this was an effort to limit spending on administrative overhead, which had reached $1.07 billion of NSF’s $4.22 billion grant budget for higher education.

However, this cap is low compared to the indirect reimbursement rates that many universities belonging to the Association of American Universities had negotiated, which often ranged from 50% to 65%.

Judge Talwani emphasized that the administration’s 15% cap was unlawful in her ruling.

The lawsuit to block NSF’s policy was backed by the Association of American Universities, other academic groups, and 13 institutions including MIT, Princeton, and Brown University. They contended that the NSF’s policy would severely damage scientific research in the U.S. and diminish the country’s global standing in this field.

The U.S. Department of Defense has also implemented a similar 15% cap, which a judge recently blocked pending a hearing.

Additionally, a previous ruling in Boston mandated that the NIH restore hundreds of grants for research unrelated to diversity topics, which had been cut as part of the administration’s efforts against initiatives deemed supportive of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”