Research Funding

• A year after federal mandates threatened to disrupt scientific research, university laboratories are experiencing cautious recovery in funding from NIH, NSF, and NASA. • Researchers at Northern Kentucky University and other institutions faced significant uncertainty when federal cuts impacted grants, laboratory operations, and student research opportunities. • The gradual thaw in federal science funding represents a critical turning point for academic research infrastructure, though underlying uncertainty about future appropriations remains.

• Congress rejected Trump administration's $18 billion NIH budget cut proposal, providing stability for 2026 grantees at institutions like University of Wisconsin-Madison. • Delays in grant reviews and dispersal have stalled projects, hiring, and caused anxiety, with NIH months behind schedule as of March 26, 2026. • Vice Chancellor Dorota Brzezinska noted core funding protection but ongoing uncertainty impacts lab operations and future awards before September 30 deadline.

Handful of billionaires gave huge sums in particular to media organisations that boosted rightwing politicians, says Liam Byrne MPMore than £170m was given to MPs, political parties, media organisations and thinktanks aligned with the UK’s populist right over the past five years, new research from the Labour MP Liam Byrne has found.Byrne, a former cabinet minister who chairs parliament’s business committee, said he had identified a “media-political complex” funded largely by a handful of billionaires. Continue reading...