Judge Blocks Trump Administration's NSF Funding Cuts

A federal judge has intervened to prevent the Trump administration from implementing significant cuts to research funding allocated by the National Science Foundation. The ruling, delivered by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston, nullified a policy change that could have resulted in universities losing tens of millions of dollars in research funding. Universities had argued that the policy threatened vital research in areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and semiconductor technology.

Judge Talwani determined that the NSF's policy change, which was announced in May, was arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful. The NSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The dispute centers on "indirect" costs, which encompass expenses like building maintenance and computer systems that are not directly tied to a specific research project. The NSF currently calculates these indirect costs on a grant-by-grant basis, with the intention of covering the actual expenses incurred.

The Trump administration, however, viewed these indirect expenses as "overhead" and sought to cap them for future NSF awards to universities at 15% of the funding allocated for direct research costs. The University of California, one of the plaintiffs in the case, estimated that this change would cost it nearly $100 million annually.

This is not the first time the Trump administration's attempts to cap research grants have been blocked by the courts. Similar caps imposed on grants by the Energy Department and the National Institutes of Health have also been overturned.

Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, highlighted the potential consequences of these funding cuts. He cited examples of research projects that have been affected, including studies on detecting fake videos generated by AI and understanding how people come to believe repeated lies. He expressed concern that critical research needed to understand truth and fiction on social media platforms would be lost.