Stop-Work Orders Roll In for Harvard Researchers After $2.2 Billion Pause in Federal Funds

Harvard-affiliated researchers have begun receiving stop-work orders on contracts worth tens of millions of dollars less than one day after the Trump administration announced a $2.2 billion pause of federally-funded research Monday evening.

David R. Walt, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Womens’ Hospital — who has been displayed as the face of the University’s research accomplishments on its public homepage, harvard.edu, since Monday — received an immediate stop work order from a Health and Human Services grant supporting ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Walt told The Crimson that the grant was worth upwards of $300,000 per year.

Spokespeople for the University did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“You are hereby directed to cease all work,” the order to Walt read.

“You are instructed not to issue further orders for materials or services related to the portion of the contract/order subject to the stop-work order, to direct any subcontractors to comply with the contents of this order, and to otherwise minimize costs,” the order continued.

“Cancellation of the project will delay our ability to complete this important project and could ultimately lead to poorer outcomes for the many patients who suffer from ALS,” Walt wrote in a statement to The Crimson.

While more than $110 million in NIH grants to Harvard-affiliated researchers were cancelled since the end of February, all featured themes of gender and sexual identity, Covid-19 and its vaccine, or health disparities — topics which have been targeted in the administration’s efforts to erase research and language that conflicts with its agenda.

But the grants and contracts now receiving stop-work orders do not appear to have any clear connection to those previously targeted themes.

HMS Professor Donald E. Ingber also received stop-work orders on two contracts related to his work on human organ chips — microfluidic devices lined with living human cells — to find new therapeutics to treat Acute Radiation Syndrome and reduce non-human primate testing of drugs and vaccines. The most valuable of the terminated contracts was worth over $15 million.

“I will have to stop research on the development of radiation countermeasure drugs that is directly relevant for the safety of our citizens, astronauts, and soldiers,” Ingber wrote in a statement to The Crimson.

“I will lose funding that supports the salaries of numerous students, postdoctoral fellows, technicians, and senior staff members who are currently supported by these contracts and doing amazing work,” he added.

While Walt had received a notification from HHS cancelling the multi-year project for its second year of funding last week, he wrote that the second notice delivered Tuesday morning stated that the grant was cancelled “effective TODAY.”

Walt told The Crimson that any appeals to the cancellation would have to be from the University.

“I don’t know what the University plans to do at this point. Too early to know,” he wrote.

Grants funded by the National Institute of Health typically ask grantees to submit reimbursement petitions, allowing the federal government to immediately block the flow of money into labs.

Many of the contracts targeted by the Trump administration have had a large portion of the money already disbursed.

Other researchers affected include School of Public Health professor Sarah Fortune, who received a similar stop-work order on her $60 million contract that supported an international group of researchers researching tuberculosis. Fortune’s stop-work order was first reported by the Boston Globe.

A spokesperson for the School of Public Health declined to comment on the cancellation.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.

—Staff writer Saketh Sundar can be reached at saketh.sundar@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @saketh_sundar.