Harvard has seen billions of dollars in federal funding slashed as the Trump administration has escalated its pressure campaign over university’s alleged discrimination in hiring and antisemitism on campus.
Over recent months, the government has continued to ratchet up the pressure, first clamping down on “indirect,’’ or administrative, costs associated with research programs, then freezing $2.2 billion in grants and more than $100 million in contracts.
Last week, federal agencies were told to terminate all remaining contracts with Harvard, representing a complete severing of the government’s longstanding relationships with the university.
Trump officials have said they’re cutting Harvard off from federal money because they allege the university has allowed antisemitism to flourish on campus amid student protests over the war in Gaza. Trump’s White House has also accused Harvard of discriminating against white people, Asian Americans, men, and heterosexuals by relying on “diversity, equity and inclusion’’ principles in its hiring.
In a move to exert pressure over Harvard, Trump administration officials on April 11 demanded the school comply with new rules about hiring, admissions, antisemitism, and “viewpoint diversity’’ audits or risk billions of dollars of federal money.
Harvard refused to comply, which is when the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in science grants.
The university has denied the Trump administration’s allegations that it engaged in race and gender discrimination in hiring.
Harvard President Alan Garber has responded by saying the Trump administration is focusing on antisemitism and discrimination to try to justify an unlawful attack on academic freedom and day-to-day operations at a university that has few peers worldwide.
“These actions have stark real-life consequences for patients, students, faculty, staff, researchers, and the standing of American higher education in the world,’’ Garber said in a widely cited open letter earlier this year.
Harvard sued the Trump administration over the loss of funding, and university’s legal filings have allowed the public to learn details of some recent cuts.
Here’s a refresher on how much money the Trump administration has slashed from Harvard, including when the cuts happened.
February NIH ‘indirect costs’ cap
On Feb. 7, just a couple of weeks into Trump’s second term, officials at the National Institutes of Health announced they would immediately slash support for “indirect costs’’ paid to universities, medical centers, and other research grant recipients.
For decades, NIH grant recipients could get reimbursed for a predetermined percentage of the so-called indirect costs tied to research, like administrative and facility expenses not directly tied to scientific goals.
Andrew G. Nixon, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said the cuts to indirect reimbursement costs would allow more money to go directly to science research, the Globe reported. Massachusetts lawmakers slammed the cost cap, saying it could disrupt critical research and threaten jobs.
At Harvard, the NIH previously reimbursed more than 60 percent of indirect costs.
After the Feb. 7 announcement, NIH indirect cost reimbursements were capped at 15 percent, representing a loss of tens of millions of dollars across Harvard.
Here’s a breakdown, according to an analysis of NIH grant data:
$33.8 million at Harvard Medical School
$13.1 million at Harvard University
$12.7 million at Harvard School of Public Health
March $9 billion under ‘review’
On March 29, the Trump administration announced it would “review’’ nearly $9 billion in federal funding for Harvard and its affiliates, including some local hospitals, in an effort to “root out antisemitism,’’ according to the government’s antisemitism task force.
The announcement came 10 days after the task force secured extraordinary concessions from Columbia University in a similar review that placed nearly $5 billion of that school’s federal funding at risk.
Local hospitals that could be affected by Harvard’s funding review include Mass General Brigham and Boston Children’s Hospital.
April 14 Billions in NIH cuts
By far the biggest blow to Harvard’s federal funding came on April 14, when the NIH announced it was freezing $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts with university biomedical researchers.
The freeze came the same day that lawyers for Harvard told the Trump administration that the university would not submit to its list of demands for hiring, admissions, and antisemitism audits.
“Harvard is committed to fighting antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in its community. Antisemitism and discrimination of any kind not only are abhorrent and antithetical to Harvard’s values but also threaten its academic mission,’’ lawyers told the Trump administration in an April 14 letter.
In its lawsuit over the funding, Harvard said they began receiving stop work orders in the immediate aftermath of the federal government’s April 14 announcement. The university also said what the Trump administration characterized as a funding “freeze’’ amounted to a termination of funds.
“The effect is the same. Under whatever name, the Government has ceased the flow of funds to Harvard as part of its pressure campaign to force Harvard to submit to the Government’s control over its academic programs,’’ Harvard officials wrote in their April 21 lawsuit.
The combined $2.26 billion in lost NIH grants and contracts is roughly 80 percent of the more than $2.8 billion of federal money that’s been announced axed by the Trump administration at Harvard, including the most recent cuts in May.
April 20 Plan to freeze ‘additional $1 billion’
On April 20, the Wall Street Journal reported that “the Trump administration has grown so furious with Harvard’’ that it is “planning to pull an additional $1 billion of the school’s funding for health research.’’
Garber and other Harvard officials referenced the potential freeze of an additional $1 billion in funding in their April 21 lawsuit, calling it an unlawful violation of the First Amendment.
“A threat such as this to a university’s academic freedom strikes an equal blow to the research conducted and resulting advancements made on its campus,’’ the lawsuit said.
May 5 Trump halts all new grants
On May 5, the Trump administration told Harvard that the university would receive no new federal grants until the school complies with its demands, including ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and curtailing campus protests.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon notified Garber of the consequences in a letter.
The university “should no longer seek GRANTS from the federal government, since none will be provided,’’ McMahon wrote.
Mid-May More federal agencies cut grants
On May 13, Harvard updated its lawsuit to include another $450 million in grants that had recently been terminated by the federal government.
Harvard said in its filing that the terminated grants had come from multiple federal agencies, including the USDA, HUD, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy.
May 27 Trump tells federal agencies to cancel Harvard contracts
Last week, the US General Services Administration, which oversees federal contracts, told all federal agencies to cancel their business agreements with Harvard, representing a loss of about $100 million for the school.
The letter appears to be an attempt to sever any remaining business relationships between Harvard and the government.
The affected contracts include a Department of Defense contract for management training and a Health and Human Services contract for research on energy drinks, the Globe reported.
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.
