U of T creates emergency fund for researchers facing US funding cuts
The University of Toronto (U of T) has created an emergency fund to support its researchers, who are facing unexpected losses in funding due to cuts and policy changes at US federal research agencies.
Announced earlier this month, the measures follow significant cuts to agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation under U.S. President Donald Trump, leaving dozens of U of T researchers suddenly out of work.
Leah Cowen, the university’s vice president of research, innovation and strategic initiatives, said the new fund will help ensure continuity while researchers look for other funding sources.
“We wanted to ensure that our world-leading research at the University of Toronto continues to thrive during this period of uncertainty,” Cowen said.
U of T is one of Canada’s most research-intensive institutions and regularly ranks among the top ranked universities in the country. Research across the board is a “global collaborative enterprise,” Cowen said, and many faculty members collaborate with other researchers around the world.
He said the university typically receives about $20 million annually from U.S. federal research agencies or through partnerships with American universities. That figure is a small drop in the bucket of its total research funding, he said, but the loss of those funds has still had a devastating impact on the researchers who rely on them.
Canadian scientists are worried after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration froze federal health spending, including funding for research at laboratories in Canada.
One of those researchers is medical biophysics professor Paul Fraser. He works with scientists at Columbia University and the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City on developing a new therapy for Alzheimer’s disease.
He said he received funding from a foreign sub-award program offered through the NIH, but that funding stopped coming after the agency stopped awarding awards to scientists outside the US.
“It was pretty devastating,” Fraser said, adding that he was grateful for the funding from U of T for providing the “lifeline” he needed to keep his project going while he looked for alternative funding.
Other Canadian funding agencies that may support their project include the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alzheimer Society of Canada. He said that there are also charitable organizations that can support the project if they wish.
But Fraser said the Canadian Institutes of Health Research only offers two grant competitions each year. If he had to put his research on hold due to lack of funding while he looked for alternatives, he said he would likely have to let go of highly trained, specialized researchers in his lab.
“This is a big problem because these people have been trained for years and have expertise that is hard to replace,” he said.
“Once you lose them you can’t get them back, so that’s a big problem.”
He said research projects involving multiple scientists could be affected by disruptions in research funding because scientists typically bring different areas of expertise to a large project. When one of them loses money, it can put pressure on the entire operation.
He said, “If you lose one of those spokes in the wheel you need to replace it or try to do without it. But doing without it can be quite difficult sometimes.”
“It’s in everyone’s best interest…to try to find replacement funding to keep things going.”
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Cowen said the emergency fund is not meant to replace US federal funding. In the meantime, he hopes the Canadian government will continue to invest in a “sovereign research ecosystem” that will continue to support Canadian research collaborations with global partners.
Last month, the Alliance of Canadian Research, which represents universities, academics and health-care research groups, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney asking his government to maintain last year’s budget commitments to invest in research funding. The letter comes ahead of the upcoming Budget on November 4, which is widely expected to make cuts across a number of sectors.
Cowen said he is “concerned but encouraged” by the signs that the government understands the importance of Canada’s research and innovation ecosystem.
“This ecosystem is vital for Canada to deliver economic productivity, health solutions and solutions to many of the global grand challenges we face as a nation and globally,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.
