UC Berkeley scientists are confronting a new wave of grant suspensions from the National Science Foundation, even as a court order from last year requires the agency to restore previously canceled projects. At least 18 awards were suspended in April, according to Claudia Polsky, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law who represents researchers in a class-action lawsuit. The actions raise alarm that the Trump administration is seeking to circumvent a federal judge’s injunction, she said.
Jedda Foreman, an associate director at the Lawrence Hall of Science, said a colleague on her team received an email on April 17 from the university’s vice chancellor of research, Katherine Yelick, notifying them that the NSF had suspended a $1.4 million grant for exhibits blending mixed reality with Indigenous Ohlone knowledge. The email stated the NSF had sent a letter citing “foreign funding” concerns but did not include the letter. Foreman said the project has received no foreign money.
“The grantees were given near-zero information about what was problematic in the execution of their grant,” Polsky said.
The suspended grant was among several that U.S. District Judge Rita Lin ordered restored in June 2025, when she issued a preliminary injunction blocking the NSF, EPA, and NEH from revoking funds using generic form letters or in enforcement of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders. Lin later ruled, in a separate case involving UCLA, that indefinitely suspending a grant is effectively the same as terminating it and ordered the funds reinstated.
Polsky said she is seeking more details about the 18 suspensions and is concerned the freeze on Foreman’s grant may violate the judge’s orders. “It seems to us like something that should not have been canceled on the merits and raises suspicion that this was just a different way to cancel the grant,” she said.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof declined to comment on the scope or impact of the suspensions, saying only that the university “is engaged with the government on matters pertaining to research grants, and remains committed to compliance with all federal laws, rules and regulations.”
The NSF suspensions are part of a broader contraction of federal research funding under the second Trump administration. In late April, Trump fired all 22 members of the independent board of scientists that oversaw the NSF, and he has proposed cutting the agency’s budget by more than half in 2027. The agency has terminated nearly 2,000 grants across the country that it said were not aligned with its priorities, including those focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion. Congress rejected a similar budget cut last year.
With federal support increasingly volatile, the University of California system is pressing for state-backed alternatives. UC President James Milliken spoke Monday at a Sacramento rally alongside state Sen. Scott Wiener and United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain in support of legislation to create a $23 billion bond fund for scientific research. The bill would place a measure on the November ballot, with proceeds directed to wildfire preparedness, pandemic response, new medical treatments, and other fields, and a share of any invention revenue returned to the state. The state assembly’s appropriations committee is scheduled to consider the bill on May 14.
“If the federal government is going to continue to attempt to reduce funding for the research that has been so important to UC — that saves lives, that drives the economy — then the state of California, I hope, will be able to step up,” Milliken told the university’s board of regents on Wednesday.
The Ohlone-focused exhibits at the Lawrence Hall of Science, co-designed with Indigenous youth, are scheduled to open on May 17, with a second phase in 2028. Researchers also planned to study whether participation fosters greater interest in science among Indigenous young people and encourages STEM career paths.
“We’re doing a lot of hoping and finger-crossing that something works out,” Foreman said. “It was such a powerful project and we really want to be able to share what we’ve learned.”