Harvard University is asking major corporations for research funding after President Donald Trump revoked more than $2 billion in federal grants from the school over campus anti-Semitism and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Harvard is “ramping up conversations with big technology and pharmaceutical companies in efforts to drive more corporate funding so research stays active,” the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The talks remain in early stages, with no new funding agreements yet secured, according to university and company sources.
The corporate outreach comes as Trump has cracked down on Harvard for failing to protect Jewish students from violent protesters and implementing what he calls “discriminatory and illegal” DEI policies. Trump has frozen nearly $3 billion in federal funding from Harvard, revoked the school’s authorization to host international students, and proposed removing Harvard’s tax-exempt status if the university “keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness.'”
Harvard, which has twice sued the Trump administration, is negotiating for a possible deal, Trump posted last Friday on Truth Social.
Trump has withdrawn billions more in federal funding from other U.S. universities. New York University is among the research schools that are also in early talks with large corporations to plug funding gaps, according to the Journal.
Both Harvard Medical School, which has lost around $230 million in annual grants, and the Wyss Institute, a Harvard-affiliated center for biological engineering, are talking to several companies about forming research arrangements, the Journal reported.
The funding cuts have hit Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health especially hard, the Journal reported. The Chan school, once reliant on federal grants for over 70 percent of its annual research budget, has resorted to layoffs and expects to shut down half of its federally funded projects by next year if the funding isn’t restored.
“The situation is far more dire at the Chan school than any other Harvard school,” Sarah Branstrator, Chan’s managing director of academic strategy and research partnerships, told the Journal. “That has prompted immediate action out of sheer necessity.”
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