Rice to support Harvard in lawsuit against research funding freeze

By James Cancelarich     6/6/25 8:42pm

Rice, alongside 17 other research universities, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration over more than $2 billion in frozen research grants.

The brief was filed in a U.S. district court in Massachusetts on June 9.

Amicus curiae, or ‘friend of the court’ briefs, are legal documents filed by third parties that allow them to speak on the subject matter of the case.

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In the brief, the universities involved state that they are participants in “historic collaboration” between the federal government and universities, dating back to research in the second world war. The research partnerships are described as being mutually beneficial to higher education and the interest of the country.

“Terminating funding disrupts ongoing projects, ruins experiments and datasets, destroys the careers of aspiring scientists, and deters investment in the long-term research that only the academy—with federal funding—can pursue, threatening the pace of progress and undermining American leadership in the process,” the brief reads.

A spokesperson for Rice declined to comment specifically on the amicus curiae brief.

Mentioned in the brief is government funded research at Rice that yielded the left-ventricular heart bypass device, alongside many others conducted at other institutions named in the amicus curiae.

“These discoveries would not have occurred without federal funding,” the brief reads. “Often, that is because the basic research universities conduct is so fundamental that it is hard to predict how it might be commercialized.”

In addition, the brief argues for an economic dimension to federal research funding.

“Federal investment in U.S. universities has also been a powerful driver of economic growth for Americans,” the brief reads. “University-generated research has created and expanded industries and produced some of the Nation’s largest companies.”

Although the lawsuit details research funding cuts to Harvard, the brief argues that cuts to one institution affect the entire research ecosystem.

“Scientists work across institutions; grants issued to one university frequently support researchers from others,” the brief reads. “And cutting-edge research is often conducted via collaboration.”

Christopher Johns-Krull, the incoming interim internal vice president for research, said that research cuts at Harvard extend to Rice.

“Many of our researchers have direct research collaborations with researchers at Havard.  In addition, the research and scholarly enterprise is very collaborative, with results coming out of Rice and other institutions having impacts across the field,” Johns-Krull wrote in an email to the Thresher. “As a leading research university, negative impacts to Harvard will certainly have negative impacts throughout the entire research enterprise.”

The Trump administration, with its repeated targeting of higher education, sent Harvard a letter April 11 alleging, among other things, that Harvard’s admissions practices were discriminatory and the university had not done enough to deter antisemitism on campus.

Harvard rebuked a set of demands placed on it by the Trump Administration, with Harvard President Alan Garber calling them “unprecedented demands being made by the federal government to control the Harvard Community.” The Trump administration then froze over $2 billion of Harvard’s federal grant money.

Harvard filed its lawsuit April 21, alleging the funding freeze was unlawful.

In February, Provost Amy Dittmar submitted testimony to a case involving research funding cuts from the National Institutes of Health, making many of the same points found in the brief. 

“Slowdowns or halts in research by Rice and other American universities will allow competitor nations that are maintaining their investments in research to surpass the United States on this front, threatening both our Nation’s national security and its economic dominance,” Dittmar wrote in her testimony.

In a May 6 letter to the campus community, President Reggie DesRoches said universities would continue research efforts despite fiscal uncertainty.

“In a moment like this, it’s important to remember that universities are built for times of change and uncertainty,” DesRoches wrote. “We generate new ideas and solutions, we question assumptions, and we adapt with purpose. We are resilient.”

This article was updated Monday, June 23, at 10:27 p.m. to include more information.

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