US: Northwestern and other universities reach agreements with the Trump Administration

Northwestern University (Illinois) has reached a deal with the Trump Administration under which $790 million (€678.7m) in frozen federal research funding will be released, the university announced on 28/11/2025.

The university agreed to pay $75m to the federal government over the next three years. It also agreed to take measures to address antisemitism, prevent discrimination in admissions, protect national security when accepting international students and funding, and more.

The funding was initially frozen in April 2025. The university said on 01/05/2025 that it had not received "official notification or details" about the freeze from the government, but it had received 98 stop-work orders and 51 grant cancellations, as well as a halt in payments for National Institutes of Health grants.

On its website, the university explained why it negotiated a settlement, saying: "The cost of a legal fight was too high and the risks too grave. If our $790m in federal research funding remained frozen, the freeze threatened to gut our labs, drive away faculty and set back entire fields of…