Johns Hopkins University is preparing to reduce personnel and programming as uncertainty over federal funding swells.
In an email sent to university employees and reviewed by WYPR on Tuesday morning, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald Daniels wrote,”... at this time, we have little choice but to reduce some of our work in response to the slowing and stopping of grants and to adjust to an evolving legal landscape. There are difficult moments before us, with impacts to budgets, personnel, and programs. Some will take time to fully understand and address; others will happen more quickly.” The letter was posted to the university website Tuesday afternoon.
According to Daniels, last year nearly 50% of the university's total incoming funds were the result of research conducted on behalf of the federal government. The university president credits that to “researchers’ extraordinary success in competing year after year for merit-based grants and contracts.”
Since taking control of the White House six weeks ago, President Donald Trump has issued a slew of executive orders aimed at higher education and slashing federally funded research. Many of those have been administered by the president’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, which is a non-governmental unit ostensibly run by unelected billionaire and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Those orders have resulted in stop work orders and then eventual cancellations for a growing number of research programs.
“Grant reviews at various agencies have been suspended, which means that grant applications submitted by our colleagues are not being evaluated or recommended for funding in a timely fashion. We anticipate that in the coming months we will see other areas where federal actions may result in a significant reduction in research work, though at this time, we are not certain of their scope and magnitude,” Daniels wrote in his letter.
The Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provided grants for research and development projects across the globe — leaving workers in international aid and public health particularly affected.
Between JHU-run international health nonprofit Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Communication Programs, and the School of Medicine, the university will be out $800 million in its grant portfolio due to the termination of most of its USAID funds, Daniels wrote.
“Because of these funding terminations, we are in the process of winding down USAID grant-related activities in Baltimore and internationally, including impactful work to provide maternal and infant care, prevent the spread of diseases, and provide clean drinking water,” Daniels said in his email.
JHU is also part of a lawsuit against the federal government in an effort to block cuts to research funding to the National Institutes of Health.
Daniels said that the university is working to take “thoughtful steps” to reduce expenses and “budget prudently, while avoiding any precipitous actions.”
“Our aim is to focus on our mission, to double and re-double our commitment to excellence, to be thoughtful and transparent in our planning and budgeting, and to consult with our shared governance bodies,” Daniels wrote.
JHU did not immediately return a request for comment on the contents of the email nor did the university answer questions about the scope of any potential reductions.
But Daniels did concede that federal research funding is not the only area of watchful concern.
“We are taking a similar approach to understanding other administration directives, including those involving diversity, equity, and inclusion,” the president wrote. “At Hopkins, we have long sought to model the best of a vibrant pluralist community. We aspire to be a place that fiercely opposes discrimination, supports equality of opportunity, and welcomes diverse people, perspectives, and thought as essential to the effective discharge of our truth-seeking function.”
This story may be updated.
