By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -A federal judge on Friday prevented the National Science Foundation from sharply cutting research funding provided to universities in the latest legal setback to efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to slash government support of research at major academic institutions.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston invalidated a policy NSF adopted in May that limited the ability of universities to be reimbursed for administrative and facility costs that indirectly support grant-funded research, ruling that it was “arbitrary and capricious.”
NSF, a $9 billion agency that funds scientific research, adopted the policy after having already canceled hundreds of grants out of step with the Republican president’s priorities. His administration has also been freezing billions of dollars in government funding for numerous universities, including Harvard.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, additional reporting by Blake Brittain and Kanishka Singh in Washington, editing by Chris Reese)
