Dear Members of the Harvard Community,
We write today to reaffirm the University’s commitment to the research enterprise as we navigate this extraordinarily challenging time. Last month, the federal government announced a freeze on more than $2 billion of grants and contracts that had been competitively awarded to Harvard researchers. Since last week, the University has received a large number of grant terminations from the federal government, stopping lifesaving research and, in some cases, losing years of important work.
Although these actions were specifically targeted at Harvard, they are part of a broader campaign to revoke scientific research funding, which has included terminations of active awards at other institutions and a federal budget proposing steep cuts to National Institutes of Health funding and to National Science Foundation funding, among other measures. The impact of such steps on the nation’s scientific research enterprise could be severe and lasting. We will continue to fight the unlawful freeze and termination of our federal grants and to advocate for the productive partnership between the federal government and research universities that has for more than eighty years resulted in pathbreaking scientific discoveries, innovations, and advances in engineering, medicine, and public health.
We stand behind our thousands of outstanding faculty, postdoctoral, staff, and student researchers. Together they continue to make revolutionary discoveries, cure illness, deepen our understanding of the world, and translate that understanding into impact and invaluable teaching and mentorship that will produce the next generation of leading scientists and innovators. It is crucial for this country, the economy, and humankind that this work continue.
The University is working closely with our Schools to provide support to our research community. Although we cannot absorb the entire cost of the suspended or canceled federal funds, we will mobilize financial resources to support critical research activity for a transitional period as we continue to work with our researchers to identify alternative funding sources. For the coming year, the University will initially dedicate $250 million of central funding to complement School-based resources and strategies to support research affected by these recent suspensions and cancellations.
During this period of significant financial constraint, leaders within our Schools will work with members of the research community to make informed, prudent decisions about how to adjust research programs in this changing funding environment. Academic leadership, faculty, staff, and researchers in the Schools are working together to find ways to support vital research while identifying necessary savings.
We are grateful to our community—and to our extraordinary researchers—for your resilience, creativity, and courage. We are also grateful to those who have made philanthropic contributions and supported our research enterprise in other ways in recent weeks. We understand the uncertainty that these times have brought and the burden our community faces. We are here to support you. While there will undoubtedly be difficult decisions and sacrifices ahead, we know that, together, we will chart a path forward to sustain and advance Harvard’s vital research mission.
Sincerely,
Alan M. Garber
President
John F. Manning
Provost
