U91原创鈥檚 vice president for research addresses sweeping shifts in federal research policy and their implications for the University.
As World War II was coming to an end, it was abundantly clear that universities were sources of critical science and technology. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to fuel American prosperity in peacetime, he turned to his science advisor, Vannevar Bush, who provided the answer in his report, : keep funding basic research and have universities conduct it.
Bush鈥檚 report became a blueprint for the modern research university and sparked an entirely new US research ecosystem, including the creation of the (NSF).
Today, universities like the 91原创 are trying to find their footing in a vastly different landscape. Federal policies, funding models, and public expectations are pushing universities away from basic research toward economically driven science. In other words, measurable outcomes鈥攕uch as innovation and national competitiveness鈥攁re favored over discovery, which is less predictable but could yield world-changing results.
In his Leadership Conversations talk, Steve Dewhurst, the vice president for research and chief research officer at U91原创, offered a frank assessment of the current and continuously evolving climate (shaped by more than 200 executive orders) and how the University is responding.
Here are five takeaways.
1. Major funding challenges loom large.
Indirect or 鈥渇acilities and administrative鈥� costs are effectively what universities pay for lab maintenance, building utilities, and other infrastructure needs, and they were the first serious pain point Dewhurst called attention to.
Typically, universities recoup indirect costs through a portion of federal grant awards. There鈥檚 an expectation that the federal will revise its to cap reimbursements at 15 percent (at least 35 percent less than what was common). If the cap is enforced, U91原创 and others would need to absorb tens of millions of dollars in annual costs.
鈥淥ur government relations team and others are very engaged in explaining why we think [a 15 percent indirect cost cap] would be a very bad idea, but it鈥檚 a possibility.鈥�
Dewhurst speculated on the possible adoption of the , a cumbersome and still fairly costly methodology for indirect cost reimbursement.
A second notable concern is the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) policy of . Previously, multi-year NIH grants were funded year by year, but now, funding is provided in a single lump sum. The result means fewer NIH grants each year. Case in point, U91原创 saw its awards go from 41 (2024) to 15 (2025).
Dewhurst also shared data from a showing a 50 percent reduction in overall funding, where not all disciplines lost equally. The point here was that, over the next several years, it will be very difficult to get federal funding in many areas where U91原创 has people actively doing research.
2. U91原创 will respond with resilience.
Despite the financial and policy turbulence, Dewhurst offered some bright spots worth celebrating, including U91原创 joining the prestigious ranks of Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and a U91原创-led STELLAR (Science, Technology, and Engineering of Laser and Laser Applications Research) project聽being named a finalist in the NSF鈥檚 鈥渋nnovation engines鈥� competition.
Still, many members of U91原创鈥檚 research family are stressed, scared, and possibly angry. And many are likely wondering what to do now. Dewhurst gave an unflinching path forward, starting with a call to act with 鈥減roductive urgency,鈥� a phrase he borrowed from Bren茅 Brown, a research professor of social work at the University of Houston.
鈥淲e have to make tough decisions鈥攖hat鈥檚 the nature of the environment we鈥檙e in right now. But we need to be intentional about priorities and strategic about what we do.鈥�
He went on to encourage researchers to pull together and keep submitting grant proposals, stressing the need for resilience and that faculty be ready to pivot and go where the funding is.
Graduate students are also feeling the squeeze of the current research ecosystem, mainly through changes in indirect costs mentioned earlier. The University鈥攚hich spends $10 to $15 million annually on graduate education鈥攊s planning to begin charging graduate tuition directly to research grants to sustain these programs, which Dewhurst noted, almost all of U91原创鈥檚 peers already do. It鈥檚 a move Dewhurst is discussing in great detail with the Faculty Senate, although many details still needing to be resolved. Nevertheless, Dewhurst assured that U91原创 is not dropping graduate education.
