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Federal Guidance for Hopkins Researchers

We are actively monitoring recent and ongoing developments affecting federal research funding and working closely with divisional and department leaders to provide support to Hopkins researchers.

Questions? Please contact ORA ([email protected]) if you are in the School of Medicine or JHURA ([email protected]) for all other divisions, along with your departmental or divisional leadership.

General guidance for researchers

  • Unless you have received a specific agency communication directed at your grant, contract or cooperative agreement and confirmed its validity and interpretation with the Office of the General Counsel (OGC), please continue to conduct your work as usual.
  • If you receive any other direct communication about an existing award, contract, or proposal from a federal agency, including a questionnaire or other request for information, please first share the original communication (or a write-up if verbal) by email with either ORA ([email protected]) if you are in the School of Medicine or JHURA ([email protected]) for all other divisions. They will provide guidance and coordinate with OGC if necessary.

Impact of federal cuts to research at Hopkins

  • Johns Hopkins is not only America’s first research university, but for more than 44 years, we have been the federal government’s largest university research partner, delivering breakthroughs that have kept our nation at the forefront of medicine, security, data science, and countless other fields.
  • We continue to face severe impacts from the government’s cancellation of international aid grants for our divisions working around the globe. To date, more than 100 federal research grants have been canceled across seven university divisions, and many other researchers are experiencing delays in renewals, awards, or reviews.
  • To address unexpected grant terminations and delays, Hopkins is making a strategic investment in our faculty and their research programs through pivot and bridge grants. This funding provides short-term support to faculty members following sponsored funding terminations or significant delays in federal grant awards.
  • Read more about how Hopkins’ research partnership with the federal government is saving lives today and creating hope for the future — and help spread the word on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, or download custom backgrounds and social banners.

Process for terminations and stop work orders

The university has established formal processes for reviewing grant terminations and stop work orders and for communicating with PIs, subrecipients, and vendors. Upon receipt of a termination notice or stop work order (SWO), PIs and departmental administrators should carefully review and follow the guidance provided by JHURA/ORA. In short, they should:

  • Forward notices from sponsors or primes JHURA ([email protected]) or ORA ([email protected]); do not respond directly.
  • Stop all research activities unless IRB-approved exceptions apply.
  • Notify teams & collaborators of the termination or SWO and, in the case of a SWO, to halt all expenses that are not reasonably avoidable.
  • Track and submit expenses incurred prior to the effective date of the termination or SWO and during the period of the SWO.
  • Seek alternate funding to support personnel or continue work, subject to approval.
  • Coordinate employment actions with leadership and HR.
  • Be aware that appeals may be possible for terminations, but not SWOs.
  • Contact relevant offices for guidance and support.

Further details will be provided directly to affected PIs and departmental/divisional leaders following the receipt of a termination notice or stop work order. Contact JHURA or ORA for more information and next steps.

Community messages from JHU/JHHS leadership

Dear Johns Hopkins Community,

As you may know, if Congress fails to find a government-wide funding agreement, the federal government will effectively shut down tonight, September 30, 2025, at midnight. We continue to monitor negotiations and legislative action in Washington and are prepared to act should this not be resolved quickly.

Past experience with temporary government shutdowns suggests that the work of most faculty, students, and staff at Johns Hopkins would not be seriously hindered and patient care would continue without interruption. The university did not experience any cash flow or other working capital challenges during prior government shutdowns, and government agencies repaid Johns Hopkins for work done on grants during a shutdown once the shutdown was resolved.

However, this moment may differ from past shutdowns given the current environment in Washington. Thanks to careful financial stewardship, we are prepared to weather short-term disruptions and offer the following guidance:

  • Continuity of operations. Unless explicitly informed otherwise, faculty, staff, and students should continue normal operations for the foreseeable future.
  • Financial aid. Johns Hopkins students who receive federal financial aid will not be penalized if the shutdown delays their payments to the university. No accounts will be deemed delinquent if disruptions are caused by the interruption in federal spending.
  • Sponsored research. This year has seen significant changes to the sponsored research landscape, and in the context of a possible shutdown, we continue to monitor related actions of federal government sponsors. Because federal law grants some discretion in how each department or agency manages lapses in funding, specific impacts will not be fully known until the government issues further guidance. For now, we ask that all sponsored activities proceed, unless a stop work order is received or another specific request is made by the federal funder. We will share information about no-cost extensions, new grant applications, and other grant-related issues as we receive information and instructions from federal agencies—and we will let you know if university guidance changes. If you receive any communication directly from federal funding agencies, please do not respond, but share the original communication (or a write-up if verbal) by email with ORA ([email protected]) if you are in the School of Medicine, or JHURA ([email protected]) for all other divisions. Please also share the communication with the Office of General Counsel ([email protected]) and the TIP Team ([email protected]).
  • Clinical reimbursement. Mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are not subject to the annual appropriations process, so clinical reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid will continue uninterrupted.
  • Travel and immigration status. Johns Hopkins affiliates who are citizens of other nations did not experience any issues regarding their status in the United States during past shutdowns. In addition, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which includes visa and passport operations, is fee-funded and typically is not affected when the government shuts down (although applicants may experience some delays). For more information, please see the Office of International Services website. Students who receive any direct communication from federal agencies (e.g., surveys) are advised not to respond but to contact OIS for guidance.

‌The university will advise you of any significant or anticipated impacts here at Johns Hopkins in the event of a prolonged shutdown.

Thank you for your continued dedication through this period of uncertainty.

 

Sincerely,

Ray Jayawardhana
Provost and professor of Physics and Astronomy

Laurent Heller
Executive vice president for finance and administration

Cybele Bjorklund
Vice president for federal strategy and executive director of the Hopkins Bloomberg Center

‌Dear Johns Hopkins University Community,

As the university marks the start of its 150th anniversary, there is much to celebrate—not only in the enduring contributions we have made to so many fields of scholarly endeavor, but also in the generations of students we have educated, the patients we have healed, and the communities we have strengthened. We have done so with constancy and conviction even through moments that tested our resilience.

For the last several months we have been managing a series of challenges to the longstanding partnership between America’s research universities and the federal government. As we shared in June, these challenges have placed considerable strain on many of our divisions and the university as a whole.

We write now to update you on these trends and to let you know that the financial mitigation actions that we took in June will continue through the fall.

Federal policy changes and impacts

Given our university’s enduring success in securing merit-based research funding, a decline in federal research support continues to be the most notable budgetary trend affecting the institution. In addition to the cancellation of more than 80 existing federal grants, we are seeing a significant decline in the number of new research awards across all federal agencies. From January through mid-September, as compared to the same time period in 2024, Johns Hopkins has received 40% fewer awards (representing a decline of ~50% less research funding). This means that the total value of our federal research grant portfolio has declined by more than $500 million compared with this time last year, excluding the USAID reductions shared previously.

In addition, while our overall enrollment has held steady, we have seen a decline of 8% in enrollment of new international graduate students universitywide, with larger drops in some programs. We are also preparing for the elimination of the federal Grad PLUS loan program, effective next July, which could affect access to financial aid for some of our graduate students. We remain committed to providing the best possible education to our students despite these challenges, with world-leading faculty, support, and facilities available to all who choose to pursue their educational goals here at Johns Hopkins.

Importantly, the effects of these challenges are uneven across our divisions, with some experiencing significant, immediate impacts, and others experiencing lesser effects. We are working closely with each division to develop plans that are both consistent with the university’s overall approach and tailored to the specific divisional context. We also are pleased to be able to continue the university’s funding of the Pivot, Bridge, and PhD & Postdoc Completion grants announced previously, and we remain as committed as ever to ensuring that our graduate students can pursue their Hopkins educational programs uninterrupted.

In light of these challenges and the uncertainty we are facing together, we will continue our posture of prudence and measured action. We are maintaining the temporary budgetary measures announced in June: continuing the hiring freeze for staff positions, with exceptions for those that are mission-critical; limiting discretionary spending; slowing some capital projects; and pausing, for the time being, most annual compensation increases. All of our divisions are continuing the contingency planning that began in the spring to prepare for further challenges on the horizon, and some are taking near-term steps to address shortfalls. In addition, we are pressing forward with universitywide and divisional efforts to identify cost savings, efficiencies, and revenue opportunities.

Further changes we are watching

There is much that remains uncertain with respect to federal research funding, especially as we approach the end of the federal government’s fiscal year on Sept. 30. Reports out of Washington, and NIH in particular, suggest that there is an effort underway to accelerate the pace of research awards this month. Although at Hopkins we remain significantly behind in NIH funding for the year, we have seen an uptick in new award activity from NIH in recent weeks. We will closely monitor the situation across all federal agencies as the government closes the books on this fiscal year. And we are planning for the possibility of a temporary government shutdown, as we have in the past, if agreement is not reached to keep the government running past Sept. 30.

We are also participating in discussions about how best to modify the government’s approach to funding research-related facilities and administrative costs (known as F&A or indirect costs). As you know, this funding is essential for our research—it supports equipment and instrumentation, laboratories, safety measures, IT infrastructure, and expert personnel. Several federal agencies have moved to dramatically cut F&A reimbursement rates for universities, and in February we joined a group of our peers, led by the Association of American Universities, to successfully block this move in court.

But that is only a temporary solution, and if the attempted 15% cap were ultimately to prevail, Hopkins could experience a 75% reduction (a loss of more than $300 million annually) in these vital research expenses. To help secure a long-term resolution, we are part of a broad coalition of universities and other research organizations that are vigorously advocating for an alternative approach, called the FAIR model, which would make appropriate reforms but still provide vital federal research support.

Finally, earlier this summer, the administration issued an executive order on “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking,” which introduced the possibility of further significant changes to federal research funding, including potential disruption of the scientific peer-review model for reviewing and selecting grant recipients. The peer-review system ensures that national funding is awarded to the best proposals and has long recognized the great strength of Johns Hopkins colleagues’ research. We are watching closely for any changes that might undermine these merit-based awards and working with a bipartisan group of stakeholders and elected officials to champion our research.

We will keep you apprised of developments on these and other issues on our Research Saves Lives website, and we plan to hold a universitywide virtual briefing on the financial situation in the coming weeks, after the close of the federal fiscal year.

We are grateful for the partnership, flexibility, and creativity our community has shown in managing through this ever-evolving landscape as One University. And, again, as we begin to mark our 150th year, thank you for your commitment to the mission and the ongoing work that fuels this remarkable university.

Sincerely,

 

Ron Daniels

‌President

Ray Jayawardhana

‌Provost and Professor of Physics and Astronomy

Laurent Heller

‌Executive Vice President for Finance & Administration‌

Dear Hopkins Research Community,

As you’re all aware, the rapid pace of policy changes from federal agencies continues to reshape our research enterprise. Just this week alone, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released two substantive policies. First, NIH will now limit the number of proposals a PI may submit annually and prohibit the submission of applications which are substantially developed using AI. Second, foreign subawards on active grants will be renegotiated as administrative supplements. The university is actively assessing these policies and will release formal guidance to impacted researchers as soon as possible.‌

‌These examples provide an opportunity for me to convey how our institution responds when we receive notice of any policy change. At Johns Hopkins, we have an incredible team of dedicated experts working across the institution who actively monitor research policy developments. Working closely with divisional and department leaders, we strive to rapidly assess the policy and provide guidance to impacted researchers as quickly as possible. Any broad guidance or messages applicable to the entire community will also be posted on our federal guidance website.

‌I encourage you to take advantage of the numerous available resources on the OVPR website to help you navigate these changes, seek new sources of funding, or discuss an issue with an expert. ‌If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us.

Best regards,

Denis Wirtz

Comprehensive Resources for Supporting Early-Career Faculty

Dear Hopkins Research Community,

Yesterday, Provost Jayawardhana and I shared with you updates on how Johns Hopkins University is addressing changes to the federal research funding ecosystem, details on the Pivot and Bridge grant programs administered by our team. These new programs demonstrate our institution’s commitment to ensuring that your research can continue to advance our understanding of the world.

These new programs are not the only resources we provide to our researchers. To that end, I write today to highlight the many other resources available to faculty, specifically early-career faculty. These supports include an array of resources and funding opportunities that our team has developed over the years to support research at Johns Hopkins.

Finally, I would like to invite you to join me and several other University leaders on May 12 at 2 p.m. for a community town hall on research resilience. We will discuss a range of issues relevant to our research enterprise. I encourage you to join by visiting https://hub.jhu.edu/vip/community-updates/ on May 12.

Funding Opportunities and Services for Early-Career Researchers

For early-career researchers, we offer many funding opportunities and services to help you establish your research career. One notable opportunity is the Catalyst Award, which provides $100,000 in funding. This award is open to researchers in years 3-10 of their tenure track, with the request for applications (RFA) occurring once a year and awards given in June.

Our team curates three databases of funding opportunities for early-career researchers, which are updated monthly. These databases include:

Early Career Funding Opportunities (all fields)
Early Career Funding Opportunities in Cancer/Oncology
Early Career Funding Opportunities in NeuroX
These databases are updated regularly and are available on the OVPR website.

Additionally, all Johns Hopkins faculty have access to the Research Development Team, who can provide expert science writing and editing services for your papers and proposals.

Funding Opportunities and Services for Large Project and Center Grants

If you are seeking funding for large projects and center grants, we offer the Discovery Award, which provides $150,000 in funding. Discovery Awards are intended to help you generate preliminary results, demonstrate the validity of your hypothesis, and showcase your ability to work on a team.

To assist you further, you can create a Pivot profile, which will allow you to search for funding by keyword and receive weekly emails of new funding opportunities. You can create your profile at https://pivot.proquest.com. If you have questions about Pivot, including how to build effective searches, please email [email protected].

Databases of PhD and Doctoral Fellowships

We have compiled a large database of PhD fellowships, which is updated monthly. This database is a valuable resource for your PhD students, providing them with numerous funding opportunities to support their research. You can download this database from our website and distribute it to your students to help them find suitable fellowships.

Similarly, our database of postdoctoral fellowships includes a wide range of funding opportunities for postdoctoral fellows, helping them secure the necessary support for their research endeavors. Download this database from our website.

Our team provides you with the resources and support needed to advance your research. We encourage you to take advantage of this support. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing you with the tools and resources you need to do your work.

Best regards,

Denis Wirtz

New and Expanded Research Support Programs

Dear faculty colleagues,

Following last week’s community message, we’re writing to share additional details about the new and expanded support programs for faculty research. These initiatives are designed to help sustain your work and preserve the momentum of discovery across disciplines—particularly for those whose research has been impacted by external funding delays or terminations.

We also invite you to join the next virtual briefing in our series, Community Updates: Research Resilience on Monday, May 12 from 2-2:45pm, where university leaders will provide an overview of the current research funding landscape and answer questions about these new support programs.

JHU Pivot Grants

Pivot Grants will provide short-term support to faculty members experiencing unexpected federal research funding disruptions due to sponsored funding terminations. Faculty across all ranks and divisions are eligible, provided they were PI/MPI/Co-PI on a terminated federal award or subcontract. These funds are intended to support pivots of research programs to new research directions and/or new funding sources through targeted, flexible awards of up to $150,000 to be spent over the course of 12 months. Faculty may use these funds to support research personnel (faculty, students, postdocs, staff) who had been supported by terminated federal research awards, as well as other necessary research needs including equipment, materials, or services. We particularly encourage applications from pre-tenure faculty.

JHU Bridge Grants

Bridge Grants will provide short-term support to sustain research programs that have been financially affected by significant delays in federal grant awards. Faculty across all ranks and divisions are eligible, provided they were PI/MPI/Co-PI on a delayed federal award or subcontract. These funds are intended to sustain research programs with a high likelihood of funding being released in the near future and where there is insufficient support from other grants, discretionary funds, or departmental/school sources in the interim. The awards offer a bridge to securing sponsored funding, with up to $100,000 to be spent over a period of up to 12 months. Departments or divisions must apply on behalf of researchers facing a gap in support due to a delay in receipt of sponsored funding (e.g., delay of a notice of renewal, delayed payment after notice of award).

Editorial Assistance Services Initiative (EASI)

The popular EASI service offers editorial support for grant proposals and journal articles at no charge to faculty. EASI has expanded its pool of writers to provide more capacity for editorial support (proposals and articles) to faculty members of all ranks and in all fields. Faculty members submit requests directly to EASI in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR). No financial commitment is required.

Additional Support for the Research Community

We are pleased to share that internal grant programs—including the Catalyst, Discovery, and Nexus Awards—will provide automatic one-year, no-cost extensions and increased flexibility for existing awards. These changes are designed to help faculty maintain research continuity and adapt to evolving circumstances.

The Office of Foundation Relations is providing additional consultation opportunities for pursuing foundation funding. The team offers strategic guidance in identifying opportunities, engaging with private foundations, and navigating select foundations that are centrally managed across Johns Hopkins. Please direct inquiries to [email protected]

Full details on all these programs, including eligibility criteria and application instructions, are available on the Office of the Vice Provost for Research website.

If you have any questions about these programs or resources, please reach out to the OVPR team at [email protected].

As our community continues to navigate this moment of significant challenge together, know that the university remains deeply committed to your professional success, scholarship, and the impact your work has on the world.

Our bond at a moment of challenge

Dear Johns Hopkins Community:

Johns Hopkins holds a particular place in the firmament of American, indeed, international higher education. Founded in the nation’s centennial year, Johns Hopkins became America’s first research university. A place dedicated to the creation of new knowledge and to the dissemination of that knowledge to our students and the world beyond.

In the ensuing nearly 150 years, we have not wavered from our foundational commitment to the research ideal. Research is our hallmark, and its essential instruments—freedom of inquiry and expression, academic excellence, marshaling of evidence, rigorous and open debate, and an embrace of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints—form our core values.

Critical to our success has been our more than eight-decade partnership with the federal government. The funds allocated by the federal government on a competitive, meritocratic basis to us and other American research universities have extended and improved the quality of human life, driven innovation, educated the next generation, created new industries and jobs, ensured the safety of the nation, and fueled the remarkable success and productivity of the American economy.

For this reason, the unprecedented challenges and pointed uncertainties of the current moment for research universities are perplexing and distressing. Over the past six weeks, we have experienced a fast and far-reaching cascade of executive orders and agency actions affecting higher education and federally sponsored research. What began as stop work orders or pauses in grant funding allocations has morphed into cancellations and terminations. 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.

Because of our researchers’ extraordinary success in competing year after year for merit-based grants and contracts, we are, more than any other American university, deeply tethered to the compact between our sector and the federal government. Last year, for instance, nearly 50% of our total incoming funds was derived from research conducted on behalf of the federal government. The breadth and depth of this historic relationship means that cuts to federal research will affect research faculty, students, and staff and will ripple through our university.

Given what we are seeing, it is necessary to plan for challenges ahead. We are, as always, in this together, and we will need a systemwide approach to address whatever systemwide shocks we and our university peers may sustain.

As we shared with you previously, Johns Hopkins is participating in litigation aimed at halting cuts to existing NIH grants. While we are awaiting the disposition of that case, we will continue to advocate to our elected representatives for the tremendous impact of the longstanding research partnership between universities and the federal government, and for the principles and values undergirding our mission.

However, 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.

For our colleagues involved with medical and public health work around the globe, the unexpected stoppage of foreign aid funds has resulted in the suspension and now termination of most of our USAID grant portfolio at Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs, and the School of Medicine, which totals more than $800 million. 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.

In response to these developments and other challenges on the horizon, we are taking thoughtful steps to reduce expenses and to budget prudently, while avoiding any precipitous actions. Our finance team is working closely with deans and divisional budget officers to develop various scenarios for potential funding reductions and to assess the effects on all aspects of our operations. 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. We will communicate more with you as these contingency planning efforts develop.

We are taking a similar approach to understanding other administration directives, including those involving diversity, equity, and inclusion. 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.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard and other legal precedents, we believe the law is clear in supporting the pursuit of this pluralistic ideal, and in protecting the exercise of free speech and academic freedom in classrooms, curricula, and scholarly inquiry. The laws and regulations that protect against discrimination of any kind are also clear, and we are scrupulous in following them for the benefit of every member of our community. After the SFFA decision, we undertook a review of our current policies and programs, including our admissions processes, and made modifications to ensure compliance with the court’s decision. Our Office of General Counsel will continue to advise us regarding any further adjustments needed to ensure the constitutionality of our activities.

As we have been in the past, we are resolute in our commitment to facing the challenges before us together as one university. We will continue to advocate vigorously and passionately for the importance of our community’s work, to protect the flame of rational inquiry and debate that burns so brightly here at Hopkins, and to be guided by our mission and the excellence, conviction, and humanity of each of you.

This ethos has carried us through daunting challenges of the past. Time and again, we have met the moment, sought new opportunities, and charted our course forward with determination and vision. We will do so again, and as we enter our 150th year, this must be our solemn pledge and commitment to one another.

Sincerely,

Ron Daniels

Our essential research partnership with the NIH

Dear Johns Hopkins Community:

We are writing today to inform you that Johns Hopkins University has joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), and 12 of our peer research universities in filing a lawsuit in federal court to block deep and devastating cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding that were announced on Friday evening. We learned this evening that in a separate, but similar case against the NIH, a temporary restraining order was granted in 22 states, including Maryland. Barring this judicial intervention, an immediate cut to the reimbursement of NIH’s share of costs associated with our research would have taken effect today.

These abrupt and sweeping cuts in NIH funding pose an extraordinary challenge to the important and lifesaving work of our faculty, staff, and students at Johns Hopkins. They jeopardize the longstanding and remarkable research partnership that was forged between the federal government and higher education at the conclusion of WWII, and put at risk the future of the American research enterprise as a whole.

The particular category of funds that is being targeted for dramatic cuts are referred to as indirect costs or F&A (facilities and administration). Indirect costs include equipment and instrumentation, laboratories, safety measures, IT infrastructure, and expert personnel who support research. These funds quite literally keep the lights on, ensure that high-powered computing systems can crunch data, and allow our staff to maintain clean, safe, and efficient labs. For decades, the NIH has reimbursed us for a portion of these research costs, based on a preset and agreed-upon contractual rate.

Given that these costs are an essential part of the research enterprise, dramatic cuts to the reimbursement formula cannot help but force corresponding cuts to research. It is that simple.

We could point to any number of examples of how these dramatic cuts will impact our research and patient care mission, but let us offer just one: NIH funding supports approximately 600 current and ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins. This includes open clinical trials in cancer, pediatrics and children’s health, heart and vascular studies, and the aging brain, among many others. The NIH funding cut endangers these trials and many more like them into the future. And these trial participants are our patients. The care, treatments, and medical breakthroughs provided to them and their families are not “overhead” – they offer meaningful hope and scientific expertise, often when it’s needed most. They are the lifeblood of the advanced care that draws patients from across the country and around the world to Johns Hopkins. Many of them come to us with life threatening conditions or diseases that have failed to respond to treatment elsewhere. They come to us because of our commitment to connecting our research with the very best clinical care.

This is why we joined the suit filed today by the AAU.

At Johns Hopkins we have long relied on and planned for the future based on that federal funding commitment, as well as our faculty members’ exceptional success in the highly competitive and rigorous NIH peer review process. We fully understand the responsibility placed on us to uphold the public trust and serve as thoughtful stewards of these funds. But the fact is that if the NIH stops funding its share of these costs, much of this important research will be jeopardized.

We know that this news out of NIH, along with other recent or anticipated impacts on areas of our work, has caused tremendous anxiety among our faculty, staff and students. Our offices of the General Counsel and Finance and Administration, along with university and divisional leadership, have been working at a breakneck pace and with great determination to make the case for the important work you do and to understand and prepare for the serious financial impacts of this cut.

Your work is at the heart of the compact between America’s research universities and our government, in service to our fellow citizens and the nation. We will continue to advocate for and support your exceptional work, and to preserve the excellence and mission of our university.

We will communicate with the university community as this situation evolves and share information through your divisions, JHURA, ORA, and the Guidance for Researchers website.

Thank you for the work you do to advance human understanding and keep our loved ones and the patients and families we serve healthy and safe.

Sincerely,

Ron Daniels
President

Theodore L. DeWeese, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Our Johns Hopkins research enterprise

Dear Johns Hopkins Community:

As America’s first research university, Johns Hopkins has had a longstanding and highly productive partnership with our federal government, forged in the embers of WWII when Vannevar Bush – an MIT engineering professor and the renowned leader of wartime R&D who went on to found the National Science Foundation – was called upon to redeploy the American research enterprise for “the improvement of the national health, the creation of new enterprises bringing jobs, and the betterment of the national standard of living.”

In the ensuing years, universities all across America answered that call, producing research and discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the possible – from the invention of radar systems to GPS, from modern genetics to quantum mechanics, from the development of the pacemaker to cancer immunotherapy. University-based research, supported by the federal government, has time and again advanced American ingenuity and competitiveness and improved the human condition at home and across the globe.

Now, as a new administration arrives in Washington, research universities are being called upon to navigate a period of substantial change, and we are reminded that this federal partnership is not to be taken lightly.

In just the past two weeks, we have seen numerous executive orders, agency directives, and other federal actions that directly affect our university’s research mission. These actions and communications signal changes in federal policy with regard to foreign aid, patient care, public health, diversity, gender, and immigration, and they coincide with unexpected pauses in grant payments from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), National Science Foundation (NSF), and National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The pace and scope of this transition is intense and presents a challenge for our university community, as it does for all of the American research enterprise.

We are closely monitoring the evolving federal landscape and collaborating closely with divisional leaders to assess and prepare for the implications of these changes across the full range of disciplines and programs, and we will continue to seek the partnership of our shared governance bodies. We are also hearing from you about your desire to continue the critical work of discovery, education, and patient care. Your commitment to improving and saving lives, pursuing the next discovery, and advancing opportunity is both inspiring and unsurprising – this is what Johns Hopkins and its people do.

And so, I write you today to urge you to keep doing your important work.

It will take some time before we know and can provide clear guidance on the extent of the changes before us. Unless you have received specific direction from an agency to pause your work, and verification of that from our Office of General Counsel, carry on. For those of you who have received direct federal communications, our Office of General Counsel and academic leadership will provide guidance and support.

Johns Hopkins has long positioned itself financially to weather short-term disruptions in federal funding, but we are also anticipating some longer-term curtailment of activities. We will comply fully with any changes in federal laws and requirements, and we will continue to do our work and highlight its positive impact while we await clarity on those changes from the federal government and through the judicial review process.

Indeed, on the cusp of our 150th anniversary, we’ll continue to do the work that has defined our institution since our beginning – to bring the benefits of discovery to the world, open students’ minds to new ideas, care for patients who rely on us, and explore ways to better understand the human condition and find solutions to society’s great challenges. And in this work, we will be guided by the principles of excellence, ingenuity, and open inquiry, drawing on the rich tapestry of people, thought, and experience that we have long held to be essential to our success.

Thank you for the role you play in Johns Hopkins’ extraordinary academic community. We will stay in touch as we move forward together.

Sincerely,
Ron Daniels

Dear Johns Hopkins research community,

Subsequent to yesterday’s message from Provost Ray Jayawardhana and Executive Vice President Laurent Heller (January 27, 2025), we have received questions about the memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued last night regarding federal grants, cooperative agreements, and other financial assistance programs, as well as a related Q&A that OMB issued today. These OMB communications are currently under review by the courts.

The OMB memoranda are directives to federal agencies – not to funding recipients. It will take time for the judicial process to unfold and for agencies to determine how they plan to operationalize the guidance and then to communicate their decisions to us and others. It is not yet clear what the impact will be for specific programs here at Hopkins.

In coordination with the Office of General Counsel, we are closely following these developments, and we hope to gain more clarity from our federal agency partners soon.

As we await further federal guidance and direction from OGC, please continue to conduct your work as usual.

If you receive any correspondence from a federal agency regarding a pause, change, or request for information involving your federally funded research, please notify your leadership and contact OGC for support and guidance before taking any action.

We will launch a website in the coming days to serve as a central resource for updates and resources for the Hopkins research community.

Thank you,

Denis Wirtz
Vice Provost for Research

Federal Policy Developments and Johns Hopkins University

Dear faculty and staff colleagues:

The new presidential administration has made a number of announcements and policy changes affecting our work here in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and globally. We are actively working with our Office of General Counsel (OGC) and university and divisional leaders to understand the implications of each announcement for Johns Hopkins and our community.

The university has established a process to track the executive orders, agency directives, and other transition-related issues, in keeping with past practice when a new administration takes office. Work groups have been established to promptly review developments across multiple areas, coordinating closely with colleagues in OGC, finance and administration, federal strategy, and relevant divisions and departments. We will be keeping our universitywide shared governance bodies apprised of developments in the coming days and seek their partnership and input as we move forward. We are also providing support to Hopkins programs and offices directly affected by federal changes.

Johns Hopkins has proudly maintained a longstanding and highly productive partnership with the federal government across numerous presidential administrations and changes in congressional leadership, working together to fuel research and discoveries that have improved countless lives in the United States and around the world and contributed immeasurably to American economic growth and competitiveness. We will continue this critical work, guided by our founding mission of education, discovery, patient care, and service to our communities.

We will continually assess the evolving policy and regulatory landscape as federal agencies provide further guidance and direction.

Thank you for the work that you do every day to uphold our commitment to the university’s mission and all those we serve.

Sincerely,

Ray Jayawardhana
Provost

Laurent Heller
Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration

Select Agency Guidance

Some federal funding agencies have issued broad guidance regarding the interpretation of new policy directives. Please note that these agency memos and policies do not necessarily reflect subsequent review by courts or guidance from the university OGC. Researchers should consult department or divisional leadership and JHURA ([email protected]) or ORA ([email protected]) before making any changes to proposals or awards based on any of the resources below.

Please visit individual agency websites below for the most up-to-date information about changes to their policies and practices:

Updated as of September 23, 2025

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    (443) 927-1957

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