Faculty Associations Fight to Fund CA Research

Faculty Associations across the ten UC campuses have joined the campaign to pass the California Science and Health Research Bond Act (SB 895) in the California state legislature. 

Faculty Association members joined other unions and community groups in Sacramento for the Save Science, Save Lives rally on May 6th, 2026, to show support for the bill. CUCFA Co-President Jessica Taft spoke at the rally. Watch her speech here.

Faculty Association members from UC Berkeley, San Francisco, Davis, and Santa Cruz joined the Save Science, Save Lives Rally in Sacramento on May 4th, 2026.
UC Davis Faculty Association members, Dr. Elizabeth Pontekis, Graduate School of Management, Dr. Richard Scallater, Physics, and Dr. Donald Palmer, Graduate School of Management, rally in Sacramento on May 4, 2026.

The bill places on the November ballot a proposition to create the California Science and Health Research Foundation and a $23B bond to fund scientific research, including health and environmental research, that was targeted, threatened, or canceled at the federal level. (Read more about this bill: Davis Faculty Association explainer on SB895).

Already over 2,500 UC Faculty have signed an open letter asking legislators to act!

Sign the Faculty Letter in Support of SB 895


The Faculty Association is doing department-level outreach to ask their colleagues to sign the open letter, meeting with legislators, and building public support for the bill. We need your help to win! GET INVOLVED!

Kimberly Elsbach, Professor emerita in the School of Management speaks at SB895 Senate committee hearing
Davis Faculty Association member Kimberly Elsbach, Professor Emerita in the School of Management, testifies at the SB895 Senate committee hearing
Davis Faculty Association Co-Chair, Richard Scallater, Physics, testifies at the SB 895 Senate committee hearing. Photos Don Palmer.

Why SB 895? California Researchers Need Reliable Funding Sources

Federal cuts and suspensions have threatened billions of dollars in scientific research funding, especially targeting the University of California. ( “Pace of N.I.H. Funding Slows Further in Trump’s Second Year,” New York Times, April 22, 2026; “Analysis: Why the research money isn’t flowing from NSF and NIH,”  Science, March 16, 2026.)

In 2025, the federal government froze or suspended $584 million in grants to UCLA and demanded $1 billion in fines—jeopardizing thousands of life-saving research projects. Over the last year, the UC Faculty Associations have filed and contributed to several important lawsuits, including Thakur v Trump, which restored some $500 million in federally funded research. You can read more about our legal victories here.

Federal cuts have shuttered research funding institutes and dozens of national laboratories. (“The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine,” New York Times, December 2, 2025.)

The Federal administration’s budget proposals envision massive future cuts to scientific research. (“Massive budget cuts for US science proposed again by Trump administration” Nature, April 2, 2026.)

The politicization of research funding threatens the University of California’s global leadership in scientific research. (“NIH Chief Defends Funding Shift to States like Nebraska, Iowa During Visit to Massachusetts,” EPSCoR / IDeA Foundation blog, December 9, 2025)