Recent federal actions against Harvard have endangered scientific research

Harvard Medical School is an epicenter of biomedical discovery with a long history of transformative scientific advances and innovations that have improved, extended, and saved the lives of countless people. Right now, our promising research across a range of disease areas – cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and more – faces an existential threat.

Unlawful terminations and current status

Since the beginning of 2025, our research enterprise has faced tremendous instability due to several federal funding cuts targeted at Harvard. More than 350 federal grants and contracts at HMS were terminated, representing approximately $230 million in funding each year. These terminations also jeopardized more than 230 outgoing HMS subawards to hospitals and academic research institutions in 23 states and in Washington, DC – including more than 100 at HMS-affiliated hospitals and the Broad Institute – who have specialized expertise and equipment needed to collaborate on and carry out this important lifesaving and life-altering research.

Federal grants are not gifts; rather, the U.S. government identified these research projects as priorities for the American people and selected researchers at Harvard for this funding through a highly competitive process led by impartial peers.

On Sept. 3, 2025, a ruling by Judge Allison D. Burroughs of the U.S. District Court in Boston said that the government had broken the law by freezing research funds at Harvard. Since that ruling, Harvard has received notices of reinstatements of many of the terminated federal awards, as well as payments for the vast majority of the expenditures incurred on the unlawfully frozen and terminated awards. These payments are reimbursements for past work. On Dec. 18, 2025, the Justice Department announced it was appealing the judge’s ruling in favor of Harvard.

On March 20, 2026, the Justice Department filed a new lawsuit that further threatens research progress at Harvard Medical School and across the University, and it adds to the legal and financial uncertainty impacting our community. Harvard will defend itself against this lawsuit, which represents yet another pretextual and retaliatory action by the administration for refusing to turn over control of Harvard to the federal government.

Continued uncertainty

The future status of federal research funding at Harvard remains uncertain. In addition to the government’s appeal of the judge’s ruling in favor of Harvard in the research funding case, Harvard also faces a reduction in its negotiated rate of essential research support costs (“indirect costs”), changes to the selection criteria for new grants, and threats to our eligibility to apply for and receive future grants and federal funding. The earnings on Harvard’s endowment are now subject to an unprecedented tax, which erodes our capacity to support our missions of research, education, and service.

On May 29, 2026, the White House Office of Management and Budget proposed revisions to the Uniform Guidance that would make some of the most significant changes to the federal grant system in decades. Among more than 320 revisions to the federal grant rules, the proposal would shift decision-making power away from scientific experts and toward political officials. The proposal would also expand federal agencies’ authority to suspend or terminate awards mid-stream, even when scientific and compliance requirements are being met. Public comments on the proposed rule were open until July 13, 2026. Read the comments submitted by Harvard University under the signature of Vice Provost for Research John H. Shaw and by Harvard Medical School under the signature of Dean George Q. Daley.

Collectively, these uncertainties continue to threaten research progress at Harvard Medical School and at research institutions nationwide. The future of this work – funded by taxpayers and done in service to humanity – hangs in the balance and threatens to disrupt the promise of new discoveries, medicines, devices, and improvements in clinical care that benefit patients and families everywhere.

Our community and the research at risk

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