HARTFORD, Conn. — The University of Connecticut has lost $100 million in federal research funding with more delayed, threatening both the university’s footprint in sciences and research and the state’s economy, officials have said.

“It impacts science, the pursuit of knowledge, advancement and things like advanced manufacturing and health innovation,” said Sen. Derek Slap, co-chair of the Higher Education Committee and a West Hartford. “Things that are important for humanity, but also important for the economy.”

In addition to research, Slap said he is concerned about the ripple effect the loss of research grants will have on jobs.

“It could be your neighbor,” he said. “It could be somebody that you go to church with or synagogue who is going to be impacted by this that might lose a job or has somebody in their family who is a graduate student and is not going to be able to continue their work.”

He said in fiscal year 2025 UConn was spending $370 million in research and now is spending $35 million less.

Michael Bailey, executive director of the UConn chapter of AAUP, said state support, research dollars and tuition fund universities such as UConn and that the loss of research dollars is impacting “the hiring of temporary employees instead of tenure track employees and not refilling tenured positions.”

The CT Mirror reported that the list of programs affected at UConn “includes work with towns on predicting and mitigating natural disasters and power outages; developing new antiviral drugs; reducing opioid misuse; preventing cancer through stress reduction; and improving mental health services in schools and communities.”

Dozens of federal grants have also been terminated at Yale University, according to sources at Yale familiar with the termination of grants.

In 2024 alone, the federal government awarded nearly $900 million in federal grants to the Ivy League university, according to information from Yale.

“The government was eliminating, terminating thousands of grants, not based on institution but based on the substance of the work,” said Daniel HoSang, professor of American studies and political science and president of Yale’s AAUP chapter. “They claimed it didn’t align with the president’s agenda of the “American people.” That’s quite literally what would be put in the termination notice.”

Yale did not respond to questions on whether it experienced delays in federal funding for research and how many grants may be impacted.

UConn experiencing federal funding delays

Michael Enright, deputy spokesperson for UConn, said in an email that “UConn has experienced and continues to experience delays with notifications of awards, issuance of non-competitive renewals, and continuation awards.

“While we have eventually received most of this funding, UConn continues to have new delays occur daily and still has unresolved issues that we are hopeful will eventually come through,” he said.

Enright declined to answer questions from the Courant on how the funding delay has impacted the university and its research or how long the delays have occurred overall.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said in an email that all “education grant continuations and awards will be made by the end of the fiscal year,” which is Sept. 30.

Since January 2025, UConn has lost approximately $53 million from terminated federal grants and unexpected non-renewals and $54 million fewer new research awards compared to fiscal year 2024, according to Stephanie Reitz, spokesperson for UConn.

Federal funds comprise 13% of UConn’s projected revenues. UConn did not answer questions on how many grants the federal government terminated.

In May, Gov. Ned Lamont and legislators announced $35 million in state funding to mitigate the loss of federal funding. But Slap said while the funds are preventing layoffs and helping with research funding, they are unable to fully make up for the loss of federal funding.

“I think the money has been a real lifesaver but we will have to see if we end up having to do more next year,” he said. “But we know Connecticut can’t afford to backfill every dollar cut from the federal government because it’s not just an attack on higher ed but also so many other things.”

In April in UConn’s request to the legislature for assistance before funding was allocated, the university said that “many fundable proposals remain stalled at the “National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other agencies jeopardizing dozens of programs, payrolls and teams that support over 2,600 faculty, staff, trainees and students.”

The CT Mirror reported in May that UConn’s Interim Vice President for Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lindsay DiStefano said that many federal grants have not been formally canceled but remain undisbursed.

Jennie McGarry, professor of sport management at UConn’s Neag School of Education, said the federal government defunded the SNAP-Ed program, which is overseen by five different agencies including UConn, impacting tens of thousands of individuals who benefitted from the program at 200 schools and senior centers. The federal government cut $9 million funded for the program.

The program centers on nutrition education and physical activity for those who are eligible for SNAP benefits, she said.

“I think the grant is unique in that its community engaged,” she said. “We are actually hands-on in communities throughout the state, engaging with people, talking with people.”

She said the program included 40 staff and 25 undergraduate students, with many of those positions eliminated.

“I think what has happened is that the federal government and the policymakers who are impacting these changes see the SNAP-Ed program as redundant, like we are already giving to people to get food,” she said. “So it is all part of the larger ecosystem right now that these challenges in our country are individually made, not systemically made.”

Changing research topics

Jeffrey Wickersham, associate professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Yale University, said beginning last year he had several grants terminated that were focused on HIV treatment and prevention at the intersection with addiction among transgender people.

While several of the grants were reinstated to finish out the work as a result of the Yale chapter of the AAUP joining onto a lawsuit the ACLU filed against the NIH, Wickersham said his work around LGBT health has become untenable. He said he is looking into a new area of research.

“The funding levels that are really needed to sustain the work in my lab are very limited and very difficult to secure,” he said. “Nothing can quite replace the level of funding and support that NIH provides. I think it’s pretty clear that the NIH will no longer invest in work to improve the health of trans persons or to understand the unique health challenges of people who identify as trans or who are gender diverse.”

He said the termination of funding for his research has been demoralizing.

“You feel very disillusioned with the career that you’ve built over two decades,” he said. “The trainees who have come to your lab to continue their training after their Ph.D. to develop their own lines of research, they have no choice now. There’s no career left for these individuals unless they leave the country. This is a very difficult time for people who are starting their career. This is where I think we stand to lose an entire generation of scientists in the United States.”

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