NYU received over $732 million in research funding from the federal government in the last academic year, as well as an additional $700 million for financial aid — a 3.4% increase and 6.7% dip from the previous fiscal year, respectively. 

The largest changes in research funding came from the Department of Commerce, which gave NYU around 379% more than it had the previous fiscal year to finance research on climate technology and wireless networks, and a 366% jump in funding from divisions within the National Endowment for the Humanities to support scholarship in fields like social sciences and history. Just months following the period on file, the Trump administration slashed thousands of research grants — including at least two at NYU — related to “woke” subjects such as race, gender and environmentalism.

In line with previous years, funding from the Department of Health and Human Services made up the majority of federal research grants to the university, with nearly $650 million in the latest report — a 2.7% increase from last year. The largest portion of the funding was directed to COVID-19 lung disease research, which totalled $156 million, and was seconded by research on neurological diseases and addiction prevention. 

All other agencies were on par with their amounts from previous years, with most seeing a 1-2% increase. Aside from the health department, NYU’s largest spenders are still the National Science Foundation, which gave the university around $42 million for biological and physical sciences, the Department of Defense at around $23 million for military research and the Department of Agriculture at around $2.4 million for agricultural research.  

Of the almost $700 million the federal government allotted to student financial aid at NYU — including Pell Grants, work-study programs and loan support — around 86.3% is for direct student loans. It represents a 5.6% drop from last fiscal year, when the university received nearly $750 million in funding for student financial aid. 

Contact Amelia Hernandez Gioia at [email protected].