Science Funding Agency Limits Money to Top Universities

A major American science funding agency has stopped giving new money to some of the country's most famous universities. The National Science Foundation (NSF) put limits on funding to Duke University, Harvard University, Princeton University, and Yale University in April. The agency gives out $8.8 billion each year to help scientists do research. It is not clear why the NSF made this decision or when it will change.

Documents from inside the NSF show that the agency's Office of Award Management put these universities "on hold" on April 9th. This means new research grants cannot go to scientists at these schools. The NSF usually gives money quickly to help scientists study important topics. But grants for these four universities have been stuck for an average of 91 days instead of the usual 10 days.

Last year, President Trump's government stopped funding some universities because of problems with discrimination policies. Harvard University lost about 75% of its research grants and sued the government. A federal judge said the government's actions were illegal and told agencies like the NSF they could not do this to Harvard again. Some legal experts think the new funding limits might break this court order.

The funding freeze affects 33 research projects from scientists at the four universities. Many of these projects study math, physics, engineering, and quantum science. Quantum science is actually something the Trump administration says it wants to support. One important project at Yale studies diseases and tries to predict the next pandemic.

Scientists at these universities were surprised to learn about the funding freeze. They did not know their grants were being held up until reporters told them. The universities have not been officially told why their funding was stopped. Princeton's research dean said the NSF has not told them about any problems with their projects.

The NSF also suspended 18 grants at the University of California, Berkeley last month. The agency said scientists there did not properly report money they got from other countries like France and the United Kingdom. One scientist at Berkeley was confused because she could not remember getting any funding from the UK. The NSF would not explain more about these suspensions.