From: Leah Cowen, Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Strategic Initiatives
Date: January 31, 2025
Re: US Federal Research Funding

The university is tracking the ongoing developments related to US federal research funds and sub awards (i.e. NIH, Department of Energy, DARPA, NSF). The status of these programs is unclear.

We advise those with active U.S. awards to be prepared for funding interruptions, and those with active applications to expect delays. Principal Investigators are encouraged to sign up for agency or sponsor alerts, if available. VPRI will communicate with active grant holders directly as information becomes available.

Until such time as the treatment of existing funding agreements becomes clearer, we encourage all faculty members with US federal funding to ensure that all relevant and eligible expenses have been posted to the correct accounts so that they can be included in the next financial report.

We are not aware of any US federal agencies that have stopped accepting proposals, so faculty may decide to continue to prepare grant proposals to these agencies. However, applicants should reconfirm proposal deadlines, verify that funding announcements have not been revised or postponed and carefully review changes to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) related aspects of proposals and funding requirements.

Please also ask faculty, staff and students to share any communications from US federal agencies related to these grants. We request this information be forwarded to VPRI at vp.research@utoronto.ca

There are approximately 90 active grants held by on-campus researchers, and foreign funding from all sources comprises 5% of campus-based research funding annually. We are working with the TAHSN hospitals and other institutions in Canada and the US to share information and discuss next steps.