It remains uncertain whether President Donald Trump’s recent efforts to freeze funding from federal grants, including those from the National Institutes of Health, will impact USC’s research.
On January 27, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo that would take effect the next day. This memo required federal agencies to pause all federal grants and loans while the Trump administration reviewed whether they aligned with its policies.
However, on January 28, a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze minutes before it was scheduled to go into effect. The following day, the Trump administration rescinded the memo and lifted the pause on federal funds.
Dr. Thomas Buchanan, the longtime director and principal investigator of USC’s Southern California Clinical and Translational Science Institute, said that due to the freeze’s quick retraction, USC did not halt any operations that rely on federal grants.
“It’s been rather confusing and chaotic because of changes in information from the federal government,” Buchanan said.
Though the freeze is now paused, Buchanan expressed concern over its potential return.
“I think if they didn’t allow us to spend on our grants, it would have a big impact,” Buchanan said. “I’ve been told that there’s another possibility for extension from a second judge. So we are monitoring the situation but not changing our practices right now.”
Buchanan also said that the original order not only set out to suspend new awards or obligations of federal funds but also the disbursement of funds under existing awards. This would mean the institute could not spend money from existing awards and would have to pause operations.
USC said in an emailed statement to Annenberg Media that the university is reviewing all executive actions from the Trump Administration, and that they follow all state and federal laws
The Trump Administration also placed restrictions on stopping the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from holding advisory council meetings, grant reviews, hiring, travel and communication. Buchanan stated that the Institute had planned a workshop sponsored by a part of the NIH for February 12, but it had to be canceled due to travel restrictions.
“We were told this morning that we couldn’t have people flying from the East Coast on behalf of the NIH to help support that,” Buchanan said.
Laura Petry, a graduate student awarded the F31 fellowship, which supports graduate students conducting dissertation research, is concerned that the freeze threatens the program’s future.
“The F31 is a critical funding mechanism for supporting doctoral students through their dissertation research and something that my department has historically relied heavily on to fund students post-candidacy,” Petry said.
Petry believes the lack of NIH funding could potentially make other programs more competitive.
“Folks are scrambling to look into alternative sources that will only become increasingly more competitive if funding from the NIH Disappears,” Petry said.