On Monday, Tufts issued a declaration supporting a lawsuit filed by several universities against the Department of Energy over its decision to implement a 15% cap on indirect costs for existing and future research grants to universities and colleges. The Department of Energy announced its decision on Friday.
The plaintiffs — including the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities — argue that the new rate cap policy is “clearly unlawful.” The lawsuit was filed Monday, and the plaintiffs are requesting a temporary restraining order.
Bernard Arulanandam, Tufts’ vice provost for research, issued a declaration opposing the policy.
“Cuts to indirect support could reduce equipment maintenance capabilities, potentially leading to safety risks in high-tech or hazardous research environments,” he wrote.
Arulanandam stated that Tufts receives a total of $23.7 million from the Department of Energy for 29 active projects, $17.6 million of which is direct costs and $6.1 million is indirect costs. In the declaration, he said that the Department of Education has $7.7 million in outstanding funding obligations to Tufts — $6 million in direct costs and $1.7 million in indirect costs. Tufts’ indirect cost rate for the Medford/Somerville campus has been 58% since it was negotiated in December 2022. For the health sciences campuses, the rate is 65%.
“Any reduction to these rates—such as a shift to a 15% indirect cost rate, which is inconsistent with Tufts’ federally negotiated agreement—would significantly reduce the university’s anticipated indirect cost recovery and have a lasting negative impact on the strength and sustainability of our research enterprise,” Arulanandam wrote.
The Department of Energy announced that the cut was being made in order to “improve efficiency, reduce costs and ensure proper stewardship of American taxpayer dollars.”
The declaration listed several projects at Tufts that could be affected by the cut: The Renewable Energy and Applied Photonics Labs in Electrical and Computer Engineering; the Green Energy and Novel Electrolytes Lab; the Smart Polymers, Membranes, and Separations Laboratory; and the Eagan Sustainable Catalysis Laboratory.
“Key consequences include underutilized or abandoned laboratories and facilities, delayed or canceled infrastructure upgrades, and the loss of collaborative spaces essential for research, education and training,” Arulanandam stated.
In his declaration, Arulanandam made an appeal to one of President Donald Trump’s promises: unleash domestic energy.
“Each of these laboratories support the DOE’s agenda to unleash American energy at home and abroad to restore U.S. energy dominance,” Arulanandam wrote.
He also wrote that the cuts would result in staff reductions in research labs and administration, highlighting the potential reduction of the Institutional Review Board. Arulanandam wrote that the Institutional Review Board is “responsible for the oversight of all research involving human subjects, ensuring both ethical standards and the protection of participants’ privacy.”
“Such reductions would have an immediate effect on the IRB’s capacity to review and approve research protocols in a timely manner, resulting in significant delays to critical research—potentially including DOE-funded projects involving human subjects,” he wrote.
Arulanandam wrote Tufts cannot cover any sort of funding gap, especially with its indirect costs. Its relatively small endowment of $2.6 billion and nonprofit status make it difficult to reallocate funding in order to cover its indirect costs.
The District Court for the District of Massachusetts has not yet set a date for a hearing.
