Funding Freeze Makes Some Ag Research Grants Inaccessible
February 26, 2025 Editor’s note: Most interviewed for this article preferred to keep their identity private for fear of future reprisals.
Ag associations and universities across the country are scrambling to keep up with the depth of President Trump’s administration’s freezes and cuts to funding. Even approved grants for both research and infrastructure are suddenly inaccessible.
One association has reported their log in to an approved grant account stopped working. A top agriculture researcher attached to a land grant college reports anonymously their USDA SCA (specific cooperative agreement) has been cancelled after it was approved and the funds are being transferred.
This researcher also has two funding requests that are stuck at pending.
“Neither have anything to do with DE [diversity and equity], transgender, or foreign aid,” they said.
Another university has instructed its staff it can no longer use the survey program used by researchers accessing government funding. So, all of this university’s research involving surveying subjects is on hold.
And one top researcher at a major land grant college reports he has not had any of his funds frozen at this point. It’s difficult to discern what is being frozen and what is being rescinded.
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