Universities Sue Dept of Energy Over Funding Cuts

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A group of universities filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy over their cuts to federal funding for universities, joining Harvard in resistance to Donald Trump’s regime.

Universities involved include Brown, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois.

The lawsuit responds to a DOE announcement on Friday that an estimated $405 million in annual federal funds to universities will be eliminated by capping indirect costs in research funding at 15 percent. The universities ask the court to block DOE’s announced policy and permanently bar the 15 percent cap on indirect costs.

Indirect costs include facilities, equipment, research staff and overhead that are not readily pegged to specific projects yet are essential for the research to be done. According to DOE, indirect costs for grant recipients at universities was over 30 percent.

The cuts endanger projects for advanced nuclear and cybersecurity technologies, new radioactive diagnosis and treatment drugs for cancer, and upgrades for rural electrical grids. The cuts would also force reductions in staffing and training programs.

A similar cut announced by the National Institutes of Health in February spawned several lawsuits. A federal judge in Boston blocked the NIH policy earlier this month.

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