This post was updated Aug. 3 at 8:50 p.m.
About 800 research grants have been suspended at UCLA, according to a Friday email from Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities Roger Wakimoto.
Wakimoto said in the email, which was sent to principal investigators and vice chancellors, that about 500 grants from National Institutes of Health, 300 from the National Science Foundation and two awards from the United States Department of Energy – were suspended effective July 30 or July 31. He added that researchers whose grants have been cut must stop spending their grant funding immediately.
The announcement follows an earlier message from Chancellor Julio Frenk, who informed the campus community Thursday that the federal government had suspended research funding to UCLA, alleging that the university had engaged in “antisemitism and bias.”
[Related: Federal government suspends research funding to UCLA]
The suspensions came after the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in a letter to UC President Michael Drake that UCLA violated federal civil rights law in its handling of antisemitism allegations following Palestinian political party and militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, during which the militant group killed 1,200 Israelis, according to the Associated Press.
“Our faculty and staff work tirelessly to secure and steward federal grants,” Wakimoto said in the email. “The funding they provide enables UCLA researchers to advance human knowledge, improve lives and change society for the better.”
A full list of suspended grants, organized by PI name in alphabetical order, has also been posted internally, according to the email.
Wakimoto said in the email that the move was “a loss for our country and a loss for the world,” echoing Frenk’s Thursday statement.
The suspension freezes each grant in place, halting spending and requiring an interim financial report within 30 days detailing all project expenses to date, according to the email.
Bharat Venkat, who leads UCLA’s Heat Lab and studies thermal inequality and public health, said the funding freeze has stripped him of the largest grant he has ever received in an Instagram post. Venkat, an associate professor at the UCLA Institute for Society & Genetics, said the suspensions could be linked to UCLA’s response to pro-Palestine protests, adding that the university and the federal government have responded to criticism of Israel by suppressing political and academic expression.
“I’m going to keep doing my research on thermal inequality and the health‑related impacts of heat — but this makes it a whole lot harder,” Venkat said in the post. “We have to fight this out in the courts.”
The funding freeze has also raised concerns about the future of undergraduate research at UCLA.
Britney Robinson, the UCLA Division of Physical Sciences’ special advisor on community and belonging, said in an email sent to students in some physical science departments that the loss of federal funding could affect how many research opportunities are open for the next few years. She added that because of the budget cuts, many labs will be unable to add undergraduates – while others could shut down completely.
Robinson said she urges students to be patient as the UCLA administration navigates the federal funding cuts. She added that with the changing political climate, the physical sciences division will continue to support students from international and undocumented backgrounds.
UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to a request for comment.
“UCLA has faced defining moments before and has always met them with courage, resilience and resolve,” Wakimoto said in the email. “Let me assure you that our goal is to restore funding to UCLA.”
Contributing reports from Alexandra Crosnoe, Amanda Velasco and Dylan Winward, Daily Bruin staff
