By Sara Randazzo and Nidhi Subbaraman

In April, Northwestern University cardiologist Dr. Rod Passman learned the National Institutes of Health had abruptly halted funding for a $37 million trial testing a new way to treat dangerous heart arrhythmias, with about 1,500 patients already enrolled.

It was part of a universitywide funding freeze that threatened to stall hundreds of projects, including clinical trials with patients on lifesaving medication.

Through the spring, Northwestern used university money to pay bills previously covered by NIH grants, spending tens of millions of dollars monthly to keep labs and trials running without a break. Researchers and administrators now worry this stopgap can't last.

"The university is totally keeping us on life support," said Dr. Daniela Matei, a Northwestern oncologist. "The big question is for how long they can do this."

For decades, Northwestern celebrated -- and relied on -- its growing pot of government funding. Now it's a liability.

The sudden collapse of the once-symbiotic relationship between the federal government and higher education is torpedoing a half-century-old university business model and upending how science is done.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has cut or frozen billions of dollars in research funding to universities and proposed slashing budgets at government science agencies. Cutting federal funding, which accounts for more than half of university research funds nationwide, has been one of the main tools Trump has used to pressure universities to change their ways.

It's a complete turnaround for today's university researchers, for whom federal funding -- from NIH, National Science Foundation, and other agencies -- has never been in question. Billions of dollars have flowed annually to universities through competitive grants, funding basic research that can lead to cutting-edge medicine and technological innovations.

At places like Harvard and Columbia, funding cuts or freezes have come with lists of demands spanning changes to admissions and faculty hiring.

At others, like Northwestern, the path to restoration is less clear. In April, a Trump administration official told media that $790 million in federal funds to the Illinois university would be frozen, but that number has never been detailed or communicated directly to school officials, a school spokesman said. Nor has Trump told the university what they can do to get the money returned, the spokesman said, though the school's president has met with Trump's education secretary to discuss the situation on campus.

University officials say bills to NIH have simply gone unpaid. NIH grant officers in April were told not to communicate with Northwestern and other affected universities about the freeze, according to an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Northwestern researchers have had grants terminated or frozen from multiple agencies, the university said.

NIH didn't respond to requests for comment.

Northwestern is one of 10 schools identified by the Trump administration's federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism as initial targets. The Midwestern university drew national attention when school leaders last spring cut a deal with pro-Palestinian students to end an on-campus encampment.

The uncertainty at Northwestern and elsewhere threatens to disrupt the way universities have operated for decades, in a system built on the belief that research helps drive economic growth, technological innovation and medical advancements.

"We cannot do business as normal without external funding," said Josh Leonard, a chemical and biological engineering professor at Northwestern whose lab is developing cancer treatments.

Sense of duty

Northwestern's relationship with the federal government first grew out of an urgent national security need.

As World War II dawned, Washington looked to Northwestern and other universities to help train tens of thousands of Naval servicemen and officers. By the middle of the war, almost a third of Northwestern's income came from government contracts, according to university historian Kevin Leonard. The money went toward housing and educating the Naval recruits, who learned skills like navigation, engineering and seamanship. Midshipmen trained in an accelerated program became known disparagingly as "90-day wonders."

As the war receded, government-sponsored research money began to flow. In 1949, an outgoing Northwestern president expressed unease about the growing reliance on federal money. "There was a fear of accepting money because of a potential loss of independence," Leonard, the historian, said, along with concern that faculty would have less time to focus on students.

Initial misgivings aside, federal grants at Northwestern continued to rise, hitting 500 projects worth some $5.6 million by the early 1960s, a financial report from the time shows.

This increasing reliance mirrored what was happening at universities nationwide. During the Cold War, federal research investment became a way to bolster national security and counter Soviet advancements. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 heralded the partnership but urged his administration to give money to universities beyond an elite batch of 20 that had captured half the federal funding.

The money, he wrote in a cabinet memorandum that year, produces "results that are needed now and in the future to achieve our many national goals in health, in defense, in space, in agriculture."

At Northwestern, federal grants helped seed engineering and scientific research and even funded construction of the university library.

In the late 1980s, Northwestern chemist Richard Silverman's NIH-funded lab developed a new molecule that later became a blockbuster drug used to treat fibromyalgia, epilepsy and neuropathic pain. Branded as Lyrica, the drug earned the university and researchers $1.4 billion dollars in royalties.

The breakthrough came unexpectedly while Silverman was seeking a different molecular property. "It was a big surprise to me," Silverman said.

Other Northwestern scientists have won Nobel Prizes, created technology to deliver diabetes medicine and developed wireless sensors for NICU babies. The university estimates its research has generated $3 billion in economic impact and supported 14,500 jobs.

University leadership continued to push to boost Northwestern's research prominence. In 2023, research funding topped $1 billion for the first time, an achievement celebrated by the university.

Antisemitism concerns

At the same time, a backlash was building against American universities.

Conservatives have long studied ways to combat what they view as the liberal, anti-Western bias of American higher education. Members of the Trump administration have focused on campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war as a reason to pull federal funding, accusing universities of failing to protect Jewish students.

By the time Hamas launched its deadly attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a group of Jewish Northwestern parents had already been in regular touch for a year about antisemitism concerns, after a student op-ed on Jewish pride was turned into an anti-Israel banner.

As campus protests and activism ramped up, the group mobilized, branding itself the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern.

The coalition watched in dismay as Northwestern's administration struck an agreement last spring with pro-Palestinian protesters to end an encampment outside the library -- a less combative gathering than those on campuses like Columbia and UCLA. The April 2024 pact, called the Agreement on Deering Meadow, promised to bring Palestinian faculty and undergraduates to Northwestern, build a new space for Muslim students and make campus investments more transparent.

Some heralded the pact as a model for avoiding law-enforcement clashes. "We were trying to find a different way to do it," said Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the chair of Northwestern's religious studies department, who supported students in the encampment. "This is a learning experience for them." Other universities soon cut their own deals.

Lisa Fields Lewis, a founder of the parent group, saw it as rewarding bad behavior. She organized a trip to Washington for students to meet with U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik and other members of Congress who had been focused on campus protests.

Soon after, the House committee that felled the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania demanded Northwestern President Michael Schill testify. Appearing alongside the leaders of UCLA and Rutgers in May 2024, Schill spoke of his ancestors who died in the Holocaust and defended the deal he struck to control the encampment.

"None of us were prepared for what we saw after Oct. 7, and you have my commitment that we will do what is necessary to combat antisemitism," he testified.

The House committee later released a 325-page report on campus antisemitism, admonishing Northwestern throughout for conceding to the protesters and not disciplining students harshly enough. The university's actions "demonstrated a gross neglect for their obligations to protect Jewish students," wrote the committee, which has since scheduled a closed-door interview with Schill to take place in August.

University leaders acknowledged that campus policies weren't strong enough in response to antisemitic incidents in the wake of Oct. 7, a Northwestern spokesman said, but they've since seen a significant decrease in antisemitism reports after updating their code of conduct and consistently enforcing violations. "There is no room for antisemitism or any form of identity-based hate or discrimination at Northwestern University," he said.

Silverman, the chemist whose work led to the breakthrough Lyrica drug, has publicly supported the parent and alumni coalition's efforts. He understands why the Trump administration is using federal funding cuts as a lever.

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June 15, 2025 07:00 ET (11:00 GMT)

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