PROVIDENCE – Brown University has joined a chorus of colleges and universities across the country, as well as national education organizations, that are suing the National Science Foundation and its director in federal court over to challenge cuts to the foundation’s grant funding.
The 40-page suit was filed May 2 in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts over the foundation’s new initiative to limit indirect cost reimbursements to a 15% rate for its research grants to higher education institutions. Brown and the 15 other plaintiffs are asking a judge to vacate the foundation’s rate cap policy, declare it as invalid and permanently prohibit the foundation from implementing the policy.
Brown and other institutions filed in April a federal lawsuit
against the U.S. Department of Energy for the same reason. In that case, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Department of Energy from putting the rate cap into effect, Brown said.
Brown Vice President for Research Greg Hirth said in a statement Tuesday the university received $34.4 million in the 2024 fiscal year to support close to 250 projects in every scientific discipline represented by the foundation. Brown says the reduced funding would have “destructive impacts” on major innovative research being conducted at the Ivy League institution.
Such potentially impacted research projects at Brown include new X-ray imaging technology that enables research toward better treatments for muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and nerve injuries and research on robot systems that will have far-reaching impacts in robotic warehousing and manufacturing, self-driving vehicles, autonomous delivery and other fields, Brown said. The university also said the foundation’s indirect cost rate reduction would result in a “funding gap,” where Brown cannot make up the difference because its research costs “significantly more than what is covered by sponsored direct costs and indirect cost recovery.”
“Without the opportunity to conduct this research, many of the most talented faculty will opt to leave Brown, and likely the United States, in pursuit of what could now become more promising positions elsewhere around the world,” Hirth said. “This brain-drain will inevitably lead to lost opportunities to develop U.S. intellectual property, advance American security and innovation, create U.S. startup companies, and develop a workforce critical for the science and technical priorities of the current administration.”
There are also currently no other identified funding sources Brown can use to make up the difference, the university said. Brown would then have to “significantly scale back” the research it conducts.
Arizona State University, California Institute of Technology, University of California, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Chicago, Cornell University, University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University, 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 lawsuit against the foundation.
This suit is the latest development in an ongoing battle between the local Ivy League institution and the Trump administration. Recently, 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.
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.
