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Harvard has now received payments on the majority of funding that it lost since the Trump administration froze its access to federal grants this spring, the University notified faculty this month.
Most of Harvard’s federal awards were reinstated in the days after a judge struck down in early September the Trump administration’s roughly $2.7 billion freeze on multiyear grant and contract commitments.
But the money itself has been slower to flow back to Harvard’s coffers. It took more than two weeks before Harvard received $46 million in Department of Health and Human Services grants. And it was more than a week later when Harvard informed faculty, in an Oct. 1 email from Vice Provost for Research John H. Shaw and Chief Financial Officer Ritu Kalra, that the majority of frozen funds had hit Harvard accounts.
The University’s Office for Sponsored Programs is in the process of reconciling the recent payments so they can be used to pay down research costs incurred since the grant terminations began in April, according to an email sent by Harvard School of Public Health Dean Andrea A. Baccarelli to HSPH faculty on Friday.
Harvard and its units generally pay for research expenses upfront, then request reimbursements from the federal government. But the funding freeze, which the Trump administration imposed after Harvard rejected a series of demands in April, prevented the University from accessing reimbursements for more than four months, until U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs rejected the freeze on Sept. 3.
A Harvard spokesperson declined to say how much funding had been returned to the University. Communications to faculty have not put a number on the amount, but Harvard’s research projects receive more than $600 million per year from the federal government — almost none of which flowed during the months that the funding freeze was in place.
Baccarelli’s email — which announced that the HSPH would loosen some of its spending guidelines — is the clearest sign so far of how the grant reinstatements may be changing the financial outlook for Harvard’s schools.
HSPH’s revised guidance for faculty receiving federal funding includes an increased spending threshold for principal investigators of up to 80 percent of their federal awards, the elimination of existing academic salary reductions, and a temporary continuance on outgoing subawards to other institutions.
The new guidelines put HSPH, the Harvard school most reliant on federal funds, “in line with the other research-heavy schools, including HMS,” HSPH spokesperson Stephanie Simon wrote in a statement to The Crimson.
Earlier this year, after HSPH lost nearly all of its direct grants from the federal government this spring, the school laid off employees, exited leases on two buildings, and made cuts to department budgets. Harvard also paused merit-based wage increases for faculty for the 2025-26 fiscal year and announced a University-wide hiring freeze.
Other Harvard schools have not pulled back from austerity measures, even after Burroughs’ ruling. Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley ’82 warned in a Sept. 18 address that the school would continue to reduce its research spending, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences announced major staff layoffs last week.
And Baccarelli’s Friday email warned faculty to keep hiring to a minimum.
“Given continued uncertainty and the potential for funds to be disrupted again, please remain cautious about hiring on new federal awards,” he wrote. “Existing personnel should be leveraged wherever possible and new hires should be limited to those that are critically necessary to achieve the specific aims of the awards.”
The restoration of frozen grants has relieved some pressures in the near term, but a higher endowment tax has imposed steep new costs on Harvard, and access to future federal funding remains uncertain. The Trump administration has signaled that it intends to cut agency budgets and shift funding toward projects that match its political priorities — all of which could have significant downstream effects on Harvard researchers.
Meanwhile, the University’s own funding remains in flux. The White House promised to appeal Burroughs’ order hours after it was entered, though any further movement in the case is currently on hold because of the government shutdown.
And HHS opened suspension and debarment proceedings into Harvard in September that could cut off its access to federal grants and contracts if the agency determines it is not a responsible recipient of government funds.
—Staff writer Ella F. Niederhelman can be reached at ella.niederhelman@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @eniederhelman.
—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.
