Dear Members of the HMS Quad Community:
As promised in my May 16 email, I am writing with an update on how we plan to allocate research continuity funds to help support research affected by the recent federal grant cancellations and anticipated reductions in the NIH budget and federal indirect cost rates.
The goal is to preserve our Quad-based research ecosystem in a way that not only maintains essential and critical activities, but honors and respects our talented community, fosters new ideas, preserves appeal for industry and philanthropic funding, and supports the next generation of scientific leaders. Below we share some details that are important for our community to understand as we work toward this goal.
Funding Sources and Amount
The University has committed $250 million to support the federal grant portfolio across its schools through the 2025-2026 academic year, to be allocated in proportion to each school’s current federal funding portfolio. For HMS — which accounts for approximately 34% of Harvard University’s total federal grant funding — this commitment translates to $90 million, which will be matched by HMS as a provision for receiving these central funds, for a total of $180 million. As explained below, HMS will incur an additional $30 million in debt to reach a total of $210 million. The HMS portion will be financed by a loan from the University.
What This Means for HMS
While $180 million would represent approximately 80% of the current run rate on HMS federal awards active as of May 6, 2025, for the 14-month period ending June 30, 2026, we recognize this amount will not sustain 80% of all laboratory research activity. We are working together with the department chairs to mobilize departmental and discretionary sources to make up for some of this shortfall.
First, whereas the University has employed a model that accounts for all federal funding activity as of May 6, HMS has estimated our research activity based on the last 12 months of federal research activity, which leaves a considerable gap. We have adjusted for this shortfall by increasing HMS’s contribution by $30 million, for a total of $210 million in support.
Second, as promised previously, the sustainability funds must support 100% coverage of all grants for the two-month period from May to June of 2025, the time that we are transitioning from a dependence on federal funding and beginning to ramp down activities.
Third, HMS prides itself on training the best scientists in the world. Therefore, we must first designate research sustainability funds to provide financial support to our students for the coming academic year. Graduate students and MD/PhD students in good standing, who were admitted through HMS-based PhD programs, are working in a lab within Harvard University, and were funded through recently terminated federally sponsored grants, will be fully supported by HMS, as outlined in their financial aid offer, with tuition and stipend for the year (July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026).
Department-Based Decision-Making
The preclinical department chairs made the strong and compelling recommendation to provide research continuity funds to each Quad department through a “block grant” mechanism. After accounting for graduate student expenses, as well as a portion of lost indirect revenue to support research-based facility and administrative expenses, block grants will be allocated proportionately to the amount of direct costs in each department. These block grants, in aggregate, will replace approximately 50% of the overall annual federal direct costs for each department. This will maximize the flexibility with which department chairs, in consultation with their faculty, can make individualized decisions about their funding distribution.
In addition, departments and labs will need to augment the block grants by using their discretionary funds (including TFT, start up, and royalty/gift funds), not to exceed the cap provided by Finance to each department, in a way that works for each lab and department. We realize that department chairs and PIs will need to make difficult decisions about how best to apply these funds. When combined with the block grants, we project that augmentation through lab and department sources will make it possible to sustain an average of 74% of the direct federal research activity during FY26.
Next Steps
Recognizing the complexity involved with operationalizing this approach, we are working on and will share more detailed guidance with research department leadership.
I understand that this period of uncertainty about our funding plans has been stressful. I share these feelings. While this process has been complicated and has taken some time to formulate and communicate clearly, please know that we remain deeply committed to you, our research community, and our mission of discovery, excellence in training, and education in service to humanity. We are being as generous as we can be within the means of what we have, and we will continue to work with department chairs and School leadership to adjust and support the research as much as we can. We are committed to recalibrating as the situation changes, hopefully for the better.
It bears repeating that we are in this together, and we will get through this together.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University