National Science Foundation ends 196 subsidies to Harvard in the middle of the dispute with Trump

Washington – The National Foundation of Sciences has finished dozens of active subsidies with Harvard University for reasons that NSF employees told News themezone can only be seen as a punishment for the university that refuses to Cueva to the authoritarian efforts of President Donald Trump to dictate what he can teach already who can hire or admit as students.

Last week, NSF ended in silence 196 subsidies with Harvard, which is equivalent to a collective loss of almost $ 46 million that has not yet been paid to the University for several research projects that are already underway. News themezone obtained a copy of the complete list of these canceled awards, but does not print it at the request of the NSF employee who shared it.

Jamie French, director of Division in the Division of Subsidies and Agreements of NSF, sent last Monday a “termination warning” to the president of Harvard, Alan Garber, along with a list of all canceled subsidies.

“The agency has determined that the termination of certain awards is necessary because they are not aligned with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic objectives,” says French’s letter. “NSF understands that Harvard continues to participate in racial discrimination, even in its admission process, and in other areas of student life, as well as not to promote a free research environment of anti -Semitism and bias.”

“From immediately, the attached awards are over,” says his letter. “This is the final decision of the agency and is not subject to appeal.”

NSF is marking Harvard’s research subsidies, since Trump has been threatening the University to meet his list of Orwellian demands or risk losing federal funds. Its demands include ending all programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI; close academic departments that can be critical of Israel; limit admissions of foreign students; and prohibit certain groups of students from campus. Harvard has said no.

The Trump administration claims to be motivated by uprooting anti-Semitism in university campuses, but in fact it has been trying to unconstitutionally silence pro-palestinian voices and, chilling, to quell academic freedom and intellectual research.

Here is a copy of French’s letter:

The subsidies that NSF has just canceled has been financing a variety of avant -garde investigations. A project has been to study the impacts of volcanic eruption in the stratosphere. Another has been to track methane emissions to different scales. Another has been developing “neuronal network theory to discover how the brain learns.”

NSF finished an important award to the center of integrated quantum materials, led by Harvard but involves other universities. Its cancellation means awards related to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Howard University and a network of universities are also finished. This subsidy has supported the work of the center in the production of 545 articles and 60,000 appointments in scientific articles, in addition to graduated students, post -careful students, patents and startup companies.

NSF employees were “blinded” by this canceled subsidy, a NSF employee to News themezone said. It seems to have been terminated by a single person who is part of the so -called Efficient Department of the Government of Elon Musk and who has “administrative credentials in our financial system,” said this employee, who requested anonymity to protect his work.

The termination of this award does not make sense since the Trump administration has specifically told NSF employees that quantum research is a main financing priority, since Reorganizes the agency. Unless Harvard is involved, apparently.

“Pure remuneration,” added this employee. “We, as a nation, are shooting on both feet. Voluntarily. The brain leak will be deep.”

He asked for comments, NSF spokesman Mike England said the agency ended its 196 subsidies with Harvard as part of its “Review of your awards portfolio”.

“The agency has determined that the termination of certain awards is necessary because they are not aligned with the current priorities of NSF and/or programmatic objectives,” said England in a statement, sharing A link to a page on the NSF website that describes its priorities.

Except that this page specifically cites quantum research as a financing priority for the agency, which contradicts its decision to terminate the main quantum subsidy mentioned above. When asked to explain the discrepancy, England only said: “NSF declines comments.”

A Harvard University spokesman did not respond to comments requests.

Julia DeMaree Nikhinson through News

Trump has been blatant to the government to try to punish Harvard. It is threatened with $ 9 billion in federal subsidies and contracts. He is threatened to strip the university of his state exempt from taxes. The administration announced last week that it reduced $ 450 million in subsidies to the university, citing its alleged fight against anti -Semitism. The finished subsidies of NSF with Harvard are a part of those $ 450 million.

Even so, unlike another elite institutionsHarvard is not going back. The University last month sued the administration for freezing billions of dollars in subsidies in what he described as an effort to “obtain control of academic decision making in Harvard.” In response to Trump that ends its $ 450 million in subsidies last week, Harvard simply expanded his demand.

The president of the University announced last week that is Taking a 25% salary cut As Harvard is being “in the blacklist” of obtaining federal funds.

“The University will not deliver its independence or resign from its constitutional rights,” Garber said last month In a message to the community. “No government, regardless of what party is in power, must dictate what private universities can teach, who can admit and hire, and what areas of study and research can.”

It is not clear if the finished subsidies of NSF with Harvard can or will be restored if the university prevails in its demand against the administration.

Via News

Some of NSF’s newly finished subsidies were being used by the Early Carrera Faculty, as part of the agency’s professional program. These are prestigious subsidies specifically aimed at lifting scientists at the beginning of their careers that have the potential to serve as academic models in the research and education of the United States.

A career subsidy was being used by a young assistant teacher who worked Quantum properties of topological materials, or Substances with unusual electronic properties due to its unique structures. The principal investigator in this investigation has already achieved a surprising 33,000 appointments of his documents, despite being so early in his career.

Another career prize that NSF has just ended was using a young researcher who was looking for methods to “stabilize new quantum materials based on oxides.” This work is considered vital for things such as low energy computing or transport without dissipation, which is the movement of energy without loss or conversion of that energy in other forms, such as heat.

NSF employees learned that all these Harvard subsidies were completed last Wednesday, and the news was received as a blow and as a devastating blow to science.

The agency previously arrested the funds for hundreds of research awards to universities by stating that they did not meet Trump’s demands to eliminate Dei’s initiatives. This time, however, Harvard Grant’s cancellations seem totally random, except that they all involve Harvard.

This decision was “a big mistake, with irreparable consequences and caused lasting damage,” said a second employee of NSF, who also requested anonymity to protect his work. “A decision apparently driven by pure revenge, not for any logical reason.”