This post was updated Sept. 25 at 3:41 p.m.
Nearly two months after the federal government froze over half a billion dollars in research funding to UCLA, the National Institutes of Health has temporarily reinstated its suspended grants Tuesday – abiding by a federal judge’s Monday ruling.
Vice Chancellor for Research and Creative Activities Roger Wakimoto announced the restatement in a Wednesday email to the UCLA community, where he added that the majority of the university’s suspended grants have temporarily been reinstated.
The federal government suspended $584 million dollars in funding to UCLA – including $500 million from the NIH – July 30 and 31. In letters explaining the cuts, the federal government said UCLA allegedly allowed antisemitism, illegal affirmative action practices and “men to participate in women’s sports.”
Rita F. Lin, a California federal district judge, ordered the Trump administration to restore about 500 of UCLA’s NIH research grants Monday through a temporary injunction.
Lin also ordered the restoration of 300 National Science Foundation grants Aug. 12. Lin’s set of decisions followed a case brought by UC researchers whose grants “have been or will be terminated, denied, suspended, or reduced” since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Wakimoto sent an email to the UCLA community Tuesday, in which he said he hoped the NIH would comply with the decision made by Lin, as the grants had not yet been restored.
Some researchers at Harvard University – another school whose frozen grants were restored following a court decision – reported they did not receive their grant money for more than two weeks after a federal judge ruled the Trump administration’s actions were unconstitutional, according to a Sept. 17 Harvard Crimson article.
In his Wednesday email, Wakimoto said he would continue sharing updates as they become available.
“My office will send additional information to principal investigators,” Wakimoto said in the email. “I remain grateful to our talented researchers, faculty, staff and students who have shown great resilience in this challenging time.”
