Recent federal research pauses have not had much impact on PNW.The Purdue University system’s 2025 Government Transition website tracks any impact stemming from policy changes imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration. So far, it reports no significant affects. 

A significant amount of research dollars are at stake.

“Last fiscal year we had over $15 million in external funding, however not all of it was from federal funding sources,” said Maja Marjanovic, director of Research and Sponsored Programs. “Since July of 2024, we’ve exceeded $12 million in funding.”

While the administration has announced suspensions for many research projects and grants, court challenges filed across the country have prevented those cuts from taking effect. 

For example, National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education v. Trump and the State of New York v. Trump  contest the legality of funding freezes. 

“So far everything has been okay as far as my research is concerned,” said Neeti Parashar, director of the Center for High Energy Physics. “There is yet to be any orders from the National Science Foundation.”

The Purdue system’s Sponsored Program Services is monitoring the research pauses and will provide details as they become available.

“Our university will continue to follow our values and our principle of ‘people first’, and will continue our core support for research,” said Karen Plaut, executive vice president for Research. “We also have longer-term strategies to support and grow our research enterprise. These strategies include further growing our industry partnerships and funding as well as philanthropic fundraising, both of which have been consistently and actively pursued at Purdue.

“We are encouraging our researchers to continue working on their projects unless they receive instructions from their program officer of funding agency instructing them to modify or stop their projects,” she said. “As of today, PNW’s funding has not been significantly impacted.”