U.S: Court order to restore suspended grants at UCLA; universities settling with the Trump administration

A federal judge orders the Trump administration to restore all suspended National Science Foundation grants at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), representing more than a third of its grants (totalling $584 M) frozen in July, according to a ruling rendered on 12/08/2025.

The Californian university saw hundreds of its science research grants frozen over campus antisemitism findings, amid investigations led by the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, created in February 2025 with the primary goal to "root out anti-semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses".

This policy followed the protests that took place in 2024 on American campuses regarding the war in Gaza.

While Harvard is also suing the Trump administration over frozen federal funding, the UCLA ruling is the first legal test of whether a wider funding freeze will pass court muster.

However, Harvard is also nearing a potentially legal settlement with the administration to spend $500 M on vocational and educational programmes and research in exchange for the restoration of billions of dollars in federal…