Iphones and GPS: Consequences of Trump's cuts in university financing

Iphones and GPS: Consequences of Trump's cuts in university financing

face a world without the internet , gps , mrna vaccines or the touchscreen on your iPhone. Experts emphasize that science and technology, which are an integral part of our daily life, might never have existed, they would not have been made possible by researched by the federal government at American universities and universities.

The threat of research by the government

But when President Trump's government threatened to withhold billions of dollars of federal funds for universities across the country, the future of innovations such as this - and America's global leadership in research and development - is at stake.

"There is no exaggeration to say that we could endanger a generations of comprehensive scientific progress in this administration," said Jon Fansmith, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the American Council on Education, compared to CNN.

"The effects are enormous for every American, regardless of political views."

universities under pressure

The government of Trump seems determined to reconcile America's most elitist universities with their political ideology by threatening to hold back research funding that is of crucial importance for universities.

The Harvard University is located in a Standoff Dollar of multi -year grants and contracts for school. The President of the Ivy League School, Alan Garber, explained that the university would "not give up its independence or constitutional rights" in order to give in to the government's claims.

But other universities have struggled a less combative tone. Fansmith noticed that some universities can survive without federal funds - but not long.

The financial challenges of universities

universities are like small cities in which thousands of faculty members, students and researchers rely on the university. But no two universities are financed equally.

public universities are often dependent on income from tuition fees and donations as well as money from state and municipal governments in order to provide the majority of their financing.

private universities, on the other hand, do not receive government financial support and are therefore heavily dependent on donations.

An example is Harvard. Last year, Philanthropy made 45 % of the university's revenue, with the majority of these funds dating from their centuries -old foundation.

Harvard, the oldest private university in the country founded in 1636, has received donations for almost four centuries. These donations enabled the university to have a foundation of $ 53 billion in 2024 - the largest of all universities in the USA.

But that does not mean that Harvard - or any other university with a foundation's assets - can access this source of money as you like and output it.

foundations are designed in such a way that they finance a university forever. Therefore, there are rules that determine how much money a university can withdraw from your foundation every year.

Last year, $ 2.4 billion made up of Harvard's foundation more than a third of the university financing. It is important that 80 % of this money for certain purposes, such as financial aid, professorships and specific scholarships, are intended within certain disciplines.

The role of the federal government in research

Johns Hopkins University "receives more money than any other facility in the USA" from the National Institutes of Health. Last year Hopkins of funding from the authority.

harvard received at federal funds for research projects in Household year 2024.

But all of this could disappear overnight if the Trump administration puts its threats back in practice. Hopkins has already employed by employed Have cost dollars on funds.

The history of research funding

The federal government did not always play such a decisive role in academic research. The Second World War fundamentally changed the relationship between government and universities in the USA.

Before the war, American industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller created their own universities and financed research projects.

But President Franklin Roosevelt was convinced that scientific progress would be crucial for the war victory. Therefore, in 1941 he signed an executive to found the offices for scientific research and Development . He commissioned Vannevar Bush, the former dean of the engineering school, to mobilize the best scientists and researchers in the country to develop more advanced weapons and technologies.

The office financed research programs at universities across the country-including the Manhattan project-and the work of these scientists not only led to the creation of the atomic bomb, but also to radar and important advances in medicine and other military technologies.

The office was dissolved after the war, but the partnership between the federal government and the universities helped bring the nation to the top of global scientific innovation. This relationship has survived for more than 70 years - until now.

innovations that are at stake

Today, agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Ministry of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the Ministry of Energy are the largest donors for academic research at universities in the country, said Toby Smith, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the Association of American Universities.

But the money does not flow directly to the accounts of Columbia or Harvard. Instead, the universities apply for and compete across the country to carry out federal grants to carry out research projects, which, according to Fansmith, enables the government to finance the best researchers at the lowest costs.

federal funds also help to cover most costs for the operation of research institutions, a system of cost sharing that has existed since Bush and the foundation of the OSRD.

essentially are comparable to national laboratories.

"If you take out money from a columbia or a Harvard or other research institutions, you have just deducted funds from the best researchers that have been selected by other scientists to carry out this research in the interests of the American population - in areas such as cancer, Alzheimer, Pädiatrie, Diabetes and other critical research areas," said Smith.

Many scientific progress was accidentally discovered by researchers who received federal funds. In fact, the annual golden goose price reminded of such innovations that had life-changing effects.

Thanks to the promotion by the National Science Foundation, economic researchers who examined markets helped the chain model for kidney donation. In 2012, researchers Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley shared the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Scientists who examined rats at Duke University, supported by the NIH, which discovered to practice "Infant massage" led and changed neonatal care of premature babies forever. This saved countless life.

That is at stake, said Smith, if the United States would hire its federal funding for universities.

"At the end of the day, the US will not have this knowledge," he said. "Other countries will overtake us in science and technology if we do not recognize and protect what a unique system we have."

and ultimately, he added, the American citizens will be the losers.