Dive Brief:
- The National Institutes of Health has temporarily restored the University of California system's research funding it abruptly revoked under President Donald Trump, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice said in court filings this week.
- A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction last month ordering NIH, along with the U.S. departments of Defense and Transportation, to reinstate the canceled funding for the university system and its researchers while a related lawsuit proceeds.
- Trump administration officials said Monday the three agencies were complying but reported some administrative difficulties that would take until mid-October to resolve.
Dive Insight:
Researchers and faculty from the University of California’s Berkeley and San Francisco campuses filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration in June, alleging its mass termination of research grants was illegal and jeopardized U.S. advancement. At the University of California, Los Angeles alone, NIH reportedly cut some 500 research grants worth over $500 million.
In September, U.S. District Judge Rita Lin temporarily ordered three agencies to reinstate the grants and barred them from making further cuts en masse against the system for the duration of the court case.
NIH has now restored the bulk of that funding to comply with the order. But the agency is running into issues verifying if the grants it canceled are held by University of California researchers who work at institutions outside of their home system, federal officials told the court on Monday.
In total, NIH identified 61 grants that likely meet this parameter, all but nine of which have been reinstated.
Officials are trying to verify that the researchers on the remaining nine grants are still employed by the University of California, a process challenged by potentially out-of-date agency files, court documents said.
As of Monday, NIH anticipated completing that work by the end of the week, though the shutdown of the federal government has likely altered that timeline.
The Defense Department also declared a successful return of funds to University of California institutions. But the agency reported administrative difficulties on behalf of its components, such as the National Security Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the branches of the military.
Simply identifying relevant awards issued through those groups has been a challenge, officials said, "because of the number of DoD Components and the variety of grants systems involved."
"Reinstatement has been particularly complicated, as a fiscal matter, where funding has already been deobligated," the court filing said. "In most cases, DoD Components have contacted UC institutions so that they can work together to modify awards and restore funding."
Prior to the government shutdown, the Defense Department gave an estimated completion date of Oct. 10.
