Dear colleagues,

I hope that you all had a nice weekend and a chance to enjoy the first signs of spring here in Boston.

Below, please find updates and guidance on recent federal actions since my last note. As always, please feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions.

The federal terminations of research grants that fund active scientific projects because they no longer meet “agency priorities” has begun in earnest. NIH staff members are identifying and cancelling grants that include terminology such as “transgender, gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and environmental justice” although “DEI” remains undefined. Federal funders are also identifying and canceling grants that might be perceived to discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity. This has led to a drastic reduction of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) projects which has had significant effects at universities around the country and for aid recipients around the world. Nearly half of Johns Hopkins University’s total revenue last year came from federally funded research, including $365 million from USAID. The organization USAID StopWork is tracking the layoffs and estimates that 14,000 domestic workers have lost their jobs so far, with thousands more anticipated.

The New York Times noted, “the Trump administration also has targeted specific schools for cuts.” It slashed $400 million from Columbia’s budget last week based on accusations that it had failed to protect students and faculty from antisemitism. Johns Hopkins and Columbia are on a list of 10 schools that the administration says are being scrutinized by an executive branch antisemitism task force. On March 10, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) also sent letters to 60 institutions of higher education warning them of potential enforcement actions if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities. The letters are addressed to all U.S. universities that are presently under investigation for Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination. Boston University is on the list.

The NIH is expected to cut between 3,400 and 5,000 positions from its workforce of 20,000 in coming days, according to NIH employees who spoke with STAT and reporting by Science, as well as the trade publication Government Executive. This comes before President Trump’s nominee for NIH commissioner, Jay Bhattacharya, has been confirmed by the Senate.

Boston University leadership and our Federal Relations team are keeping close tabs on new directives to assess what they mean for our community. A newly launched information hub aims to keep our community informed about how directives and policies from the executive branch are being implemented at BU, with links to frequently asked questions about federally funded research; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and immigration and safety.

Guidance from the University Office of Sponsored Programs remains unchanged. Any concerns by PIs about non-renewal of federal grant funding, stop work orders, or notices of funding “pauses” should be directed to Dean McClean. PIs should not take personnel actions in response to anticipated federal funding disruptions without prior consultation with and approval from Sponsored Programs, which Dean McClean will help facilitate. Check for updates on the University’s online resource for updates about the 2025 administration transition.

All labor requests, travel, and external consultants on unrestricted funds (school money) and discretionary funds continue to fall under the budget controls and a request for approval is required. Please direct any questions to the Associate Dean for Administration and Finance, Dean Lazic at iralazic@bu.edu.

As our investigators seek other funding sources, the Boston University Foundation Relations (FR) team helps faculty researchers obtain gifts and grants from private philanthropic foundations and nongovernmental organizations.  The team offers services and resources at three key stages of the grant-seeking process. Researchers can work with Foundation Relations at any point in the process (see their website for further details), but here are some ways to begin, according to David Gillerman, Senior Director, Foundation Relations (FR), at the Boston University Medical Campus, dgillerm@bu.edu.

  1. Identification: identifying the funders most likely to support your work
    • FR conducts customized research for individual faculty research programs.  See their contact list to determine which member of the FR staff is assigned to your academic department and available to assist you
    • FR early career road maps show funding opportunities specific to early career faculty. These are custom-made on demand to highlight the programs suited to your interests.
    • FR can provide access to directories of foundation donors so that you can do your own research.  
    1. Cultivation: helping you to develop collegial relationships with foundation staff who can provide advice about applying for their grants.
      • Pre-submission meetings with foundation officials often lead to more effective proposals.  FR will try to arrange these meetings for you.
      • “Meet the Funder” events are webinars in which groups of BU faculty meet for conversations with foundation representatives. FR announces these a month in advance and archive recordings of them in our website.
      • Solicitation: preparing and submitting the application itself.
      • “Library of successful proposals” has examples of proposals BU faculty have submitted successfully to dozens of different foundations.
      • FR will edit letters of inquiry and proposals for fidelity to the funder’s guidelines and will proofread them.

            I also want to highlight upcoming opportunities to engage with our community:

            Finally, I want to express my gratitude for you all. Thank you for all that you do to move the work of our school forward despite these challenging times. Please know that your efforts do not go unnoticed, and I am proud, now more than ever, to be a part of the BUSPH community.

            Thank you,

            Michael Stein
            Dean ad interim
            mdstein@bu.edu

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