Northwestern University researchers reeling after the Trump administration’s announced plans to cut $790 million in the university’s funding are starting to get answers. Over 100 stop-work orders were sent to research faculty across the university by the Department of Defense this week, President Michael Schill said in an email Thursday to Northwestern students and staff.
“This situation is changing rapidly, but we are working quickly and deliberately to gather facts to help us understand and respond to this emerging crisis,” Schill wrote in the email.
Schill noted that projects affected include research into wearable devices, robotics, nanotechnology, foreign military training, Parkinson’s disease among others.
Julius Lucks, a professor of chemical and biological engineering, said the order would force him to stop all operations for one of the biggest projects in his lab, which is working to develop and refine technology to detect lead in water. The project sought to bring clean and safe water to homes all over the country.
Lucks said this is only the beginning of the damage to come, and that it won’t only be the elite institution affected.
“The public sees that as, ‘Northwestern has a billion bucks, they should be fine,’” Lucks said. “I think it’s really important to reflect that … labs are going to be shut down, scientists are not going to be trained. We are going to have a generational gap in our country’s ability to be the world’s leader in technology.”
According to Lucks, several other labs funded by the defense department received the same notice.
The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The university has pledged to provide funding for the graduate researchers who lost $45,000 in annual wages from federal grants, according to an email sent to graduate students in the engineering school.
“If you are on a federal grant that has received a work stoppage, your stipend is still being paid by Northwestern and you should use this time to continue appropriate activities to advance your academic progress in ways that do not incur additional expense,” Associate Dean for Research and Doctoral Studies Erik Luijten wrote in the email.
Those activities include literature, data analysis, writing and modeling, Luijten added.
Juliana Feng, an MD/Ph.D. student who works in Lucks’ lab, said no students in his lab were affected, but the lab is funded by a federal grant to acquire necessary materials.
She said it is a “frightening time” to pursue research, but she hopes researchers will continue finding solutions.
“I feel like many scientists are troopers and we will do our best to keep our work going, because that’s what we do. We fail all the time, but I think we will pull through,” Feng said.
In addition to defense department funding, the funding freeze apparently also involves grants and contracts with the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services, according to officials who spoke to The New York Times.
Northwestern spokesperson Jon Yates said university leaders had still not received official notice from the Trump administration about the $790 million pause by Thursday afternoon. White House officials on Tuesday said the government is investigating Northwestern over alleged civil rights violations.
“Federal funds that Northwestern receives drive innovative and lifesaving research, like the recent development by Northwestern researchers of the world’s smallest pacemaker, and research fueling the fight against Alzheimer’s disease,” Yates said in an email sent Wednesday. “This type of research is now at jeopardy. The University has fully cooperated with investigations by both the Department of Education and Congress.”
Cornell University, which is facing a $1 billion federal funding freeze, received over 75 stop-work notices from the DOD, according to The Cornell Daily Sun, its student newspaper.
