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Updated May 14, 2025, at 7:05 p.m.
Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 announced Wednesday that the University will allocate $250 million in funding over the next year to support research impacted by the Trump administration’s freeze on nearly $3 billion in grants and contracts.
In a message to University affiliates, Garber and Harvard Provost John F. Manning ’82 wrote that the funding — which will supplement the more than $500 million the University already allocates to research support — would help sustain “critical research activity for a transitional period” and pledged continued support for faculty, postdocs, students, and staff affected by the cuts.
“We understand the uncertainty that these times have brought and the burden our community faces,” Garber and Manning wrote. “We are here to support you.”
But they acknowledged that Harvard would not be able to fully absorb the cost of the suspended or canceled federal awards, warning that the funding shortfall could disrupt long-running projects, delay scientific progress, and force unpopular decisions across Harvard’s schools.
“While there will undoubtedly be difficult decisions and sacrifices ahead, we know that, together, we will chart a path forward to sustain and advance Harvard’s vital research mission,” Garber and Manning wrote.
They wrote that they had tasked deans and academic leaders across Harvard’s schools with making “informed, prudent” decisions to adapt their research operations to what he described as “a changing funding environment.”
While no research projects have been shut down internally, several of Harvard’s schools have spent the last few months reckoning with the gravity of the funding crisis. Since President Donald Trump took office in January, his cuts to scientific funding — including the widespread terminations of grants including keywords on subjects like race, gender, and Covid-19 — have hurt Harvard’s bottom line.
In April, Harvard Medical School leadership told employees to prepare for staff reductions and program cuts following the Trump administration’s first $2.2 billion funding cut. One day after, the Harvard Public School of Health announced that it had already begun laying off staff and making targeted cuts to its departmental budget.
Garber and Manning wrote in their Wednesday email that the $250 million fund would come from funding allocated to Harvard’s central administration, which includes the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost.
They also emphasized that while many of the Trump administration’s recent actions — including a $450 million cut on Monday — have been aimed directly at Harvard, the White House was engaging in a nationwide campaign to ax research spending.
“Although these actions were specifically targeted at Harvard, they are part of a broader campaign to revoke scientific research funding,” Garber and Manning wrote, citing terminations of grants at other institutions and proposed cuts to funding for the National Institutes of Health.
“The impact of such steps on the nation’s scientific research enterprise could be severe and lasting,” they added.
Garber and Manning extolled the national significance of Harvard’s research at several points in his message, citing its role in driving “pathbreaking scientific discoveries, innovations, and advances” — a refrain consistent with Harvard’s public messaging and arguments in its ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Wednesday’s announcement marks the most substantial budgetary step the University has taken to mitigate the impact of the freeze and support affected researchers.
The $250 million pledge represents only a small fraction of the frozen federal funding, but it appears aimed at buying Harvard time — keeping essential research projects afloat while schools and principal investigators pursue new funding pathways. In his message, Garber promised support in helping researchers identify alternative funding sources, though he did not detail what options Harvard might pursue. Many researchers say private support will not be enough.
In fiscal year 2024, Harvard received $684 million in awards from the federal government — 10 percent of its total operating budget and more than twice what it received in non-federal sponsored funding.
The move comes as Harvard prepares for what will likely turn into a months-long or even years-long standoff with the Trump administration. Oral arguments in Harvard’s lawsuit challenging the funding freeze are not set to begin until July 21 — and with Harvard opting not to seek a preliminary injunction when it filed its lawsuit in April, no canceled or suspended grants are likely to be reinstated in the meantime.
—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.
—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.
