Defend UC Against Federal Interference

Over the past two years, UC faculty have faced an unprecedented attack on our ability to do our research.

Now more than ever it is necessary for UCOP to defend the university’s academic mission by using its
resources to stabilize the sponsored research environment. Long term, we urge UCOP to ensure that
faculty have the resources necessary for success in establishing impactful research programs and
obtaining outside funding.

It has become increasingly clear that the UC is not doing its part to assist faculty through these difficulties. They refused to participate in the lawsuits against the Trump administration and have offered a piecemeal response to this systemwide crisis, leaving faculty to manage the fallout largely on their own.

Our Demand: Create a transparent and accessible fund to assure the continuation of research programs affected by federal funding politics and to enable research time for health sciences faculty whose salaries rely on a combination of grants and clinical work.

The Problem: A new level of insecurity in the sponsored research environment.

Since the beginning of 2025, UC faculty have faced a new level of insecurity in the sponsored research environment. The federal administration has carried out a systematic attack on research by eliminating funding agencies, canceling awarded grants, reducing the funding available, delaying the distribution of awards, and politicizing the peer-review process.

The result has been significant insecurity about the future of funding availability. The loss of funds can undermine years, sometimes decades, of research. It undercuts faculty’s ability to win future grants and diminishes what distinguishes the UC system: our world leadership in research.

In the Health Sciences

In the health sciences in particular, some faculty do not receive salary support from central funds and are therefore reliant on their clinical work and their grants to fund their research time. A loss of funding for them can mean a loss of salary, an end to their research program, or even the loss of their faculty position. Physician researchers are often pressured to subsidize their research with additional clinical time, which has the effect of further diminishing their research programs and reducing their competitiveness for future funding. Early career researchers are particularly vulnerable to these pressures, especially as their start up funds diminish.

Our Proposal: A transparent and accessible research stabilization fund

To maintain UC’s place as a world leader in scientific research, faculty need a stable funding environment. Early career faculty need support at critical junctures in their development to ensure they fully develop their research program and secure funding. Physician researchers need protected research time to ensure their research programs do not suffer at the whims of the federal instability.

We urge UCOP to prioritize faculty research as a core activity of the university. This means investing significant resources in stabilizing the sponsored research environment in the midst of this crisis and deepening the administration’s commitment to support faculty to build their research program.

We recognize that budgetary questions are complex and need to be addressed thoughtfully. We would argue that protecting the research mission of the university should be one of the university’s highest priorities and that current budgeting does not always reflect those priorities.

This is why faculty must be at the table when these priorities are set. Our first-hand knowledge of the needs of researchers and the trajectory of careers in research must be the basis of any policy for research support.

This is what organizing can win

–REINVEST IN THE MISSION: SIGN THE PETITION–

–download this document for print–