PROVIDENCE – Brown University is among nine colleges and universities across the nation, and three national education organizations that recently filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy aiming to stop funding cuts to grant funding from the department.
In a 41-page lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, Brown and the other plaintiffs are fighting the Department of Energy’s new plan to limit indirect cost reimbursements to a 15% rate for the agency’s research grants to colleges and universities. Brown receives Department of Energy grants to fund research projects, such as artificial intelligence, quantum information science and nuclear technology, overseen by its engineering school, physics and applied mathematics departments, the university said.
Such projects are considered “critical priorities” of the current federal administration, Brown says. However, Brown Vice President for Research Greg Hirth said late Monday the department reducing its indirect cost rate and terminating grants will have “devastating effects” on Brown’s research initiatives and the progression of science both locally and nationally.
“Setting the overhead rate of sponsored grants and contracts to 15% would disrupt Brown’s research initiatives, operating budgets, personnel, core infrastructure and communities,” Hirth said. “If the indirect cost reimbursement of Brown’s DOE-sponsored grants and contracts had been reduced to 15%, the loss for Fiscal Year 2024 would have exceeded $2 million. We estimate the loss for Fiscal Year 2025 would be similar.”
Hirth said Brown’s federal grants and contracts totaled $253.4 million, or 19% of the university's operating revenue. Of that, $69.6 million was indirect costs. This fiscal year, Brown’s operating budget projects $300 million in federally sponsored research and anticipates $73 million in indirect costs, Hirth says.
This suit is the latest development in an ongoing battle between the local Ivy League institution and the Trump administration. A week ago, President Donald Trump’s administration
planned to halt $510 million in contracts and grants awarded to Brown. However, university officials said at the time they are aware of “troubling rumors” about federal action being taken on Brown but have “no new information to substantiate any of these rumors.”
Also, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has
increased its investigation of Brown over alleged violations of the federal 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VI to focus on the whole Ivy League institution. The probe pertains to last spring’s on-campus protests over the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and capture of Israeli citizens.
Brown was also
put on notice by the U.S. Department of Education for possible Civil Rights Act Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination occurring on campus
California Institute of Technology, Cornell University, the University of Illinois, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Princeton University, the University of Rochester, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities are the other plaintiffs in the suit. Department of Energy representatives did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment from Providence Business News.
Along with legal fees and other relief, Brown and the other universities are asking the court to vacate the department’s rate cap policy and declare the policy as invalid, arbitrary and capricious. They also seek a permanent injunction on the department from implementing or maintaining the policy “in any form” and from terminating any grants pursuant to the policy or “based on a grantee’s refusal to accept a indirect cost rate less than their negotiated rate.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
