The Trump administration informed Australian college researchers a push to advertise administration priorities and keep away from “DEI, woke gender ideology and the green new deal” was behind a “temporary pause” of funding, in accordance with a memo seen by Guardian Australia.
College sector sources say the US has severed analysis funding at six universities – Monash College, Australian Nationwide College (ANU) and the College of Melbourne, College of Sydney, College of New South Wales and College of Western Australia – since Donald Trump got here to energy, together with some as early as January. ANU is the primary college to publicly acknowledged it.
The tasks, which spanned a spread of matters from agriculture to international help, social science and geology, had been cancelled pending a assessment as a part of US larger training cuts. Some notifications got here immediately from US authorities businesses to researchers.
A memo despatched to an Australian college mission on 27 January on behalf of the US workplace of administration and price range notifying a “temporary pause” of company funding stated the manager department had a “duty to align federal spending and action with the will of the American people”.
“Financial assistance should be dedicated to advancing Administration priorities, focusing taxpayer dollars to advance a stronger and safer America, eliminating the financial burden of inflation for citizens, unleashing American energy and manufacturing, ending ‘wokeness’ and the weaponization of government, promoting efficiency in government, and Making America Healthy Again,” the memo stated.
“The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve.”
The memo stated every US federal company should full a complete evaluation of its federal monetary help to determine applications, tasks, and actions which may be implicated by any of the president’s govt orders.
“In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
In an electronic mail despatched to workers on Tuesday, the ANU vice-chancellor, Genevieve Bell, confirmed the college had its “first termination of funding” from the US. Based on sources, it was associated to a social science mission.
“It is hard to ignore the broader contexts in which we are operating – a looming federal election and a growing complexity of geo-political forces impacting us here in Australia,” she wrote. “We are committed to supporting our researchers and the work we do here, in all the ways we can.”
The Universities Australia CEO, Luke Sheehy, informed ABC Canberra Drive on Wednesday it was a “worrying trend” to see funding pulled from the “biggest foreign partner that we have”.
“Our greatest research partner in the US is looking like it’s becoming unreliable,” he stated. “This is an important and alarming development … we want to make sure that the Australian government provides us a pathway and some clarity on what we should do next.”
Sheehy stated US funding accounted for greater than $400m in 2024 alone – equal to round half the funding the federal authorities provideed in analysis grants through the Australian Analysis Council.
Sheehy urged the federal government to hitch Horizon Europe, which he described as one of many “biggest sources of funding for research on the planet”, because the US turned more and more unreliable.
The seven-year scientific collaborative analysis fund, with a price range of €95.5bn, has 20 non-European companions, together with New Zealand, the UK and Canada.
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Final week, the Trump administration was accused of “blatant foreign interference” in Australia’s universities after researchers who obtain US funding had been despatched a questionnaire asking to verify they aligned with US authorities pursuits.
Sources have informed Guardian Australia that researchers from not less than 13 universities have acquired the questionnaires.
The Group of Eight CEO, Vicki Thomson, wrote to the trade minister, Ed Husic, this week on behalf of its member universities and the European Australian Enterprise Council (EABC) CEO, Jason Collins, urging Australia to affiliate with Horizon Europe.
“Given the recent action taken by the Trump Administration regarding funding for collaborative research projects, we believe association to Horizon Europe is now vital,” she wrote. “This, coupled with a surge in protectionist trade and industrial policies, impose a direct harm on Australian industry.”
Thomson, additionally the EABC deputy chair, has persistently lobbied the federal government to hitch Horizon Europe since 2020.
The federal government has not given a motive for refusing to hitch this system, however trade insiders have attributed it to potential prices. Final 12 months, a spokesperson for Husic stated Labor had “no plans” to rethink it.
The Australian Academy of Science president, Prof Chennupati Jagadish AC, urged the federal government to offer “serious and urgent attention” to American authorities’ actions or danger being “dangerously unprepared” for the implications.
Amercians make up 40% of collaborators in Australian bodily sciences publications – together with observational methods relied on for cyclone monitoring functionality and onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing.
Jagadish stated the federal government should “immediately act to diversify risk” by increasing worldwide analysis collaborations, specializing in Horizon Europe.
“The consequences of inaction are profound,” he stated. “The Australian government must be prepared to respond to restrictions that could flow from these initiatives, and to do so via consultation with the science and technology sector.”
The international minister, Penny Wong, Husic and the minister for training, Jason Clare, had been approached for remark.
