On July 31, 2025, the National Science Foundation (NSF) informed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) that it would be indefinitely suspending nearly 300 research grants. The suspended grants covered topics ranging from computer science to measuring the volatile organic compounds released during recent wildfires in Los Angeles.
Chancellor Julio Frenk wrote in an open letter to the UCLA community that other federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had also suspended research grants to the university. An NSF spokesperson said that the grants were suspended “because they are not in alignment with current NSF priorities and/or programmatic goals.”
Update: On June 23, 2025, a federal court judge ordered the NSF to restore UCLA’s terminated grants. The order was issued in Thakur v. Trump, a lawsuit challenging the termination of UCLA research grants awarded by several federal agencies. The order provides temporary relief from termination while the case is being litigated.