UW-Madison is asking its researchers to be careful with their federal research dollars, amid concerns over President Donald Trump’s efforts this week to freeze federal funding, at least temporarily.
Provost Charles Isbell, who oversees all academic operations, and Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Rob Cramer offered guidance in a letter to UW-Madison vice chancellors and college deans.
Researchers shouldn’t hire additional people with federal funds and should limit purchases made with federal funds, the letter said, urging spending restraint until the university says otherwise and noting that even purchases researchers had planned on making should be reconsidered, including any goods or services, out-of-state travel or equipment.
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“Existing discretionary obligations should be reconsidered, as reimbursement by the federal government is not guaranteed,” the letter said. “Keep new commitments on federal funds to a minimum for the same reason.”
Isbell and Cramer also asked researchers to share any stop-work orders or delays on payment from the federal government with the university’s Research and Sponsored Programs, an administrative office.
Their advice follows a week of whiplash on changing federal policies.
In a letter dated Jan. 24, Vice Chancellor for Research Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska urged researchers to stay on track with their projects, despite Trump’s gag order on Health and Human Services officials communicating outside of the federal government.
On Monday, Trump administration announced it would temporarily pause all federal funding to put it through an ideological purity test, meant to weed out any spending deemed to “advance Marxist equity, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies.” It put billions of federal funding in Wisconsin at risk alone, including a third of the UW system’s $7.5 billion budget in 2023-24.
Twenty-two states, including Wisconsin, then sued to allow federal funding to continue. A federal judge blocked Trump’s order from going into effect for six days after a coalition of nonprofits sued.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that it was rescinding the memo pausing federal aid, but the future of federal funding is still uncertain.
