Updates on federal actions

Dear JHU Community, 

As federal actions and directives on a wide range of issues continue to impact our university directly—from the termination and slowing of research grants to policy changes on immigration, diversity, and accreditation—we remain keenly focused on our mission and our shared responsibility to our students, staff, and faculty. 

In this challenging moment for higher education and for Johns Hopkins in particular, we write to share several updates with the community, including important developments affecting our international students and the launch of support programs for our faculty, staff, and students. 

Immigration and our international community

We are encouraged by the news on Friday that the federal government has decided to restore the visas of foreign students nationwide. As of today, 36 of the 37 Johns Hopkins international students and recent graduates whose SEVIS records were terminated by the government have had their status reactivated. Our Office of International Services (OIS) and Office of General Counsel (OGC) are continuing to provide services to affected students, including pursuing reinstatement, access to legal representation, and as needed support to return to campus. 

To keep our community apprised of developments, we will hold a second Community Update: Immigration and Visas on Tuesday, April 29, at noon. Please visit the OIS website for more information.

Research impacts

We shared with you previously the severe impact of the government’s cancellation of international aid grants for our divisions working around the globe. While a portion of those USAID grants have since been restored, we have also experienced terminations of research grants from a number of other federal agencies. To date, more than 100 federal research grants have been canceled universitywide and many others are experiencing delays in renewals, awards, or reviews. 

We are continuing to take a prudent and measured approach to planning for the financial impacts of these actions. We must gird for more cuts ahead given proposals in Washington for dramatic reductions in federal research budgets and continued debate over the shared funding of the facilities and administrative costs (F&A or “indirect” costs) essential to our research. We are working closely with the divisions to plan for various contingencies in this highly fluid policy environment. We are in touch with those faculty and staff who are affected directly by immediate terminations, and we will continue to update the community as we move forward. We remain in this work together, as one university, and our planning is focused on how we balance support for our core academic functions with potential reductions in funding that are likely to have a longer and deeper impact on our budgets, personnel, and programs.

As you know, we joined with peer universities and the Association of American Universities (AAU) in litigation aimed at halting sudden cuts to existing NIH grants. This suit is wending its way through the courts and has thus far been successful in preventing the immediate loss of an estimated $4 billion dollars in annual research funding for higher education institutions, of which Johns Hopkins’ share is approximately $200 million. We anticipate joining similar legal actions should additional federal agencies seek to pull back other large-scale federal funding commitments, reflecting our resolve to exercise our rights to due process and fair treatment as needed. 

We are also supporting the AAU and other organizations’ advocacy efforts on multiple fronts to make the case for the staggering success of the research compact between the federal government and our universities, and the dire effects for America that would result from its contraction or dismantling.

In addition, we are reviewing the recent imposition of new terms and conditions on all NIH grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As this community has heard from us before, the laws and regulations that protect against discrimination of any kind are well established, and we are scrupulous in following them for the benefit of every member of our community. Johns Hopkins fiercely opposes discrimination and welcomes people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and thought as essential to the effective discharge of our truth-seeking function, and we will pursue these values consistent with the U.S. Constitution and applicable federal laws and regulations.

Support programs for our research community

We are deeply committed to sustaining the people and projects that power discovery at Johns Hopkins.While we cannot make up the full measure of recent or potential federal research cuts, we are striving to provide several new supports to faculty, students, and staff directly affected in an effort to temper some of the most immediate impacts on our research enterprise. 

These investments include:

• Pivot and Bridge Grant Programs: Together with divisional leadership, the university is establishing pivot and bridge grants to provide short-term funding for faculty members and research teams facing grant terminations or significant delays in grant awards. These new grants will allow affected researchers to pivot to new research directions and/or funding sources or to bridge their research programs pending sponsored funding. Full details—including deadlines, eligibility criteria, and application instructions, plus information about additional faculty support programs—are available on the Office of the Vice Provost for Research website.
• Editorial Assistance Services Initiative (EASI): Established in 2021, EASI offers editorial support for grant proposals and journal articles at no charge. This popular service has expanded its pool of writers to serve more faculty members of all ranks and in all fields during this period of transition to new federal funding priorities and alternative funding sources. 
• PhD Thesis and Postdoc Research Completion Program: This initiative offers one year of support to PhD students whose dissertations are impacted by recent changes in federal grants and to postdoctoral fellows who had been supported by federal grants that were terminated. Full details—including deadlines, eligibility criteria, and application instructions—are available on the Office of the Provost website.
• Summer Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA): Given the impact of federal research cuts on summer research and internship opportunities, and to enable even more undergraduates to pursue original research and creative projects in collaboration with Hopkins mentors, we have increased university funding for the PURAprogram for Summer 2025, raising from 66 to 113 the number of funded students at Hopkins.

These investments, and our intensive ongoing planning and advocacy, reflect our firm commitment to preserving the essential work of both basic and applied discovery, to continuing to honor our core values as America’s first research university, especially academic freedom, and to protecting our people, particularly those whose work and livelihoods are dependent upon federal support. Sustaining our mission and each other in this environment stands as our lodestar. We will continue to defend our mission vigorously, affirming and reaffirming our steadfast belief and confidence in how our work has and will contribute to the wellbeing and strength of our country and the world.  

Sincerely, 

Ronald Daniels
President

Ray Jayawardhana 
Provost
Professor of Physics and Astronomy