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Updated June 7, 2025, at 6:07 p.m.
Harvard will cease funding more than 570 subawards for research at affiliated institutions across 32 states after cuts to federal support, according to a University spokesperson.
Affiliate institutions will now take on any further spending on the hundreds of active research projects, which were previously backed by federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard, at their own financial risk, the University told subrecipients on Wednesday.
Harvard’s messages came as mass terminations of federally funded grants from the Trump administration have racked up a price tag of more than $2.7 billion since April. Harvard has sued to block the funding freeze, but the matter will likely take months to be resolved.
The halt to subawards means the grant freeze will have ramifications far beyond Harvard’s gates. In April, Department of Education spokesperson Madison Biedermann said that hospitals affiliated with Harvard would not be affected by the Trump administration’s then-$2.2 billion pause on federal grants and contracts.
But Harvard channels federal funds to the hospitals — as well as other universities and research centers nationwide — through subawards. And the cuts could take a toll on the Mass General Brigham hospital system, a Harvard affiliate that is the largest hospital-based research enterprise in the United States and the state’s largest private employer.
MGB Chief Academic Officer Paul J. Anderson informed hospital staff in a Thursday email that “Harvard will no longer be able to reimburse MGB for costs incurred under outgoing subawards.”
Anderson instructed researchers who have been notified that their work is impacted by the cuts to “take the necessary immediate steps to stop all activity and spending” unless they have already found an alternative funding source to cover the costs. Expenses incurred before stop-work orders can still be processed, Anderson wrote.
“Harvard hopes to restart funding if the legal challenges are successful, but it’s unclear when that might be or whether an eventual resumption of funding would cover activities during this period,” he wrote.
An MGB spokesperson referred The Crimson to Anderson’s email but declined to comment on the financial impacts of the funding cuts.
Last fiscal year, Harvard spent more than $181 million, or roughly 18 percent, of its sponsored funding — which comes primarily from the federal government but also includes private sources — on subcontracts.
Now, Harvard has lost almost all of its federal awards, which totaled $684 million last fiscal year. The lost grants include around 350 research grants to Harvard Medical School and more than 200 at the School of Public Health.
—Staff writer Saketh Sundar contributed reporting.
—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.
