The report, titled "Broken Lifelines: The Economic Consequences of Defunding Academic Public Health," provides the first detailed analysis of how grant freezes, budget reductions, and agency restructurings implemented since January 2025 have devastated higher education institutions nationwide.
Major universities hit hardest include Johns Hopkins University, which announced 2,200 layoffs directly attributed to declining federal research funding, and Harvard University, which faces a $2.2 billion funding freeze affecting its medical and public health schools.
“The more than 150 member institutions of ASPPH, representing over 103,000 faculty, staff, and students, form a nationwide network that trains the future public health workforce and generates lifesaving research,” the report states. “This critical infrastructure is now under unprecedented threat.”
The disruptions began in late January 2025 when sweeping executive actions dramatically altered federal funding flows. An Office of Management and Budget memorandum instructed agencies to pause federal financial assistance activities, effectively freezing research grants and public health program funds. The National Institutes of Health, which awarded $36.94 billion in extramural research funding in fiscal year 2024, ground operations to a halt as peer review meetings were canceled and grant cycles delayed or terminated.
The report documents that approximately 780 NIH grants were terminated or faced cancellation by March 2025 under new administrative priorities.
“Critical projects at institutions like Harvard were halted; one HIV/AIDS research team had its funding 'cut off very abruptly,' disrupting work and international partnerships,” according to the ASPPH analysis.
