National Science Foundation Ends 196 Grants To Harvard Amid Feud With Trump

WASHINGTON ― The National Science Foundation has terminated dozens of active grants with Harvard University for reasons that NSF employees told HuffPost can only be viewed as punishment for the university refusing to cave to President Donald Trump’s authoritarian efforts to dictate what it can teach and who it can hire or admit as students.

NSF last week quietly ended 196 grants with Harvard, which amounts to a collective loss of nearly $46 million that hasn’t yet been paid out to the university for various research projects already underway. HuffPost obtained a copy of the full list of these canceled awards, but isn’t printing it at the request of the NSF staffer who shared it.

Jamie French, a division director in NSF’s Division of Grants and Agreements, last Monday sent a “notice of termination” letter to Harvard president Alan Garber along with a list of all the canceled grants.

“The agency has determined that termination of certain awards is necessary because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals,” reads French’s letter. “NSF understands that Harvard continues to engage in race discrimination including in its admissions process, and in other areas of student life, as well as failing to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and bias.”

“Effective immediately, the attached awards are terminated,” reads his letter. “This is the final agency decision and not subject to appeal.”

NSF is yanking research grants from Harvard as Trump has been threatening the university to comply with his Orwellian list of demands, or risk losing federal funding. His demands include ending all programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI; shutting down academic departments that may be critical of Israel; limiting admissions of foreign students; and banning certain student groups from campus. Harvard has said no.

The Trump administration claims to be motivated by rooting out anti-semitism on college campuses, but in fact has been trying to unconstitutionally silence pro-Palestinian voices and, chillingly, to stifle academic freedom and intellectual inquiry.

Here’s a copy of French’s letter:

The grants that NSF just canceled have been funding a range of cutting-edge research. One project has been studying the impacts of volcanic eruption on the stratosphere. Another has been tracking methane emissions at different scales. Another has been developing “neural network theory for uncovering how the brain learns.”

NSF terminated a major award to the Center for Integrated Quantum Materials, which is led by Harvard but involves other universities. Its cancellation means related awards to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Howard University and a network of colleges are all terminated, too. This grant has supported the center’s work in producing a whopping 545 papers and 60,000 citations in scientific papers, in addition to graduate students, post-doctorate students, patents and startup companies.

NSF employees were “blindsided” by this grant being canceled, one NSF staffer told HuffPost. It appears to have been terminated by a single person who is part of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and who has “admin credentials in our financial system,” said this employee, who requested anonymity to protect their job.

The termination of this award also makes no sense given that the Trump administration has specifically told NSF employees that quantum research is a top funding priority as it reorganizes the agency. Unless Harvard is involved, apparently.

“Pure retribution,” added this staffer. “We as a nation are shooting ourselves in both feet. Willingly. The brain drain will be profound.”

Asked for comment, NSF spokesperson Mike England said the agency terminated its 196 grants with Harvard as part of its “review of its award portfolio.”

“The agency has determined that termination of certain awards is necessary because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals,” England said in a statement, sharing a link to a page on NSF’s website that outlines its priorities.

Except this page specifically cites quantum research as a funding priority for the agency, which contradicts its decision to terminate the major quantum grant previously cited. Asked to explain the discrepancy, England said only, “NSF declines comment.”

A Harvard University spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump has been blatantly weaponizing the government to try to punish Harvard. He’s threatened $9 billion in federal grants and contracts. He’s threatened to strip the university of its tax-exempt status. The administration last week announced it was cutting $450 million in grants to the university, citing its supposed fight against anti-semitism. NSF’s terminated grants with Harvard are a piece of that $450 million.

Still, unlike some other elite institutions, Harvard isn’t backing down. The university last month sued the administration for freezing billions of dollars in grants in what it described as an effort to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard.” In response to Trump terminating its $450 million in grants last week, Harvard simply expanded its lawsuit.

The university’s president announced last week that he’s taking a 25% pay cut as Harvard is being “blacklisted” from getting federal funding.

“The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” Garber said last month in a message to the community. “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue.”

It’s not clear if NSF’s terminated grants with Harvard can or will be restored if the university prevails in its lawsuit against the administration.

Some of NSF’s newly terminated grants were being used by early-career faculty, as part of the agency’s so-called CAREER program. These are prestigious grants specifically aimed at lifting up scientists early in their careers who have the potential to serve as academic role models in U.S. research and education.

One CAREER grant was being used by a young assistant professor working on quantum properties of topological materials, or substances with unusual electronic properties because of their unique structures. The principal investigator in this research has already achieved a stunning 33,000 citations of his papers, despite being so early in his career.

Another CAREER award that NSF just terminated was being used by a young investigator looking into methods to “stabilize novel oxide-based quantum materials.” This work is considered vital for things like low-energy computing or dissipationless transport, which is the movement of energy without any loss or conversion of that energy into other forms, like heat.

NSF employees learned of all of these Harvard grants being terminated last Wednesday, and the news was received both as a shock and as a devastating blow to science.

The agency previously halted funding for hundreds of research awards to universities by claiming they weren’t complying with Trump’s demands to eliminate DEI initiatives. This time, though, the Harvard grant cancellations appear to be totally random ― except that they all involve Harvard.

This decision was “a huge mistake, with irreparable consequences and leading to lasting damage,” said a second NSF employee, who also requested anonymity to protect their job. “A decision seemingly driven by pure revenge, not by any logical reasons.”