Find all Leading Research Universities Reports below. The Leading Research Universities report is a free newsletter covering events in higher education and research.
The bills fund most scientific research agencies at much higher levels than President Trump proposed in his FY26 budget request, avoiding the draconian cuts to federal research funding that many in the scientific community had feared.
The Fulbright Program recognized the higher education institutions in the United States that produced the most Fulbright students and scholars last year – AAU member institutions again lead the list.
Last December, AAU submitted a response to a request for information by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) on steps and actions the Trump administration could take to accelerate the American scientific enterprise and enable groundbreaking discoveries.
Small business and intellectual property advocates pressed Congress to protect the Bayh-Dole Act and reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) federal grant programs, at a Capitol Hill panel on February 4.
In 2025, hundreds of lawsuits were filed against the Trump administration challenging policies that tested the limits of executive power, many of which directly or indirectly affect the nation’s higher education system and the scientific research enterprise, including colleges and universities’ ability to: enroll students; conduct research vital to our nation’s health, security, and economy; and manage their faculty, staff, and curriculum.
On January 27, the Department of Energy announced that, because of the signing of the FY26 Energy-Water spending bill into law, “the Policy Flashes related to adjusting indirect rates … are no longer in effect.” The bill requires DOE to apply negotiated indirect cost rates as they were applied in FY24.
Costs of Research (F&A Costs) | Leading Research Universities Report | Research Administration & Regulation
On January 20, AAU and 22 other higher education organizations (led by the American Council on Education) submitted a friend-of-the-court brief urging the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court’s decision to block President Trump’s effort to prevent Harvard University from enrolling international students.
On Thursday night, the House passed the final four spending bills for FY26: Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, and Homeland Security. The four bills will now be bundled together with the FY26 Financial Services General Government and National Security-State bills, which the House passed last week, into a six-bill minibus that will be sent over to the Senate.
A new paper released by Attain Partners and commissioned by AAU and COGR shows that universities on average are reimbursed less by the federal government for the indirect research costs they incur than private industry contractors and federal laboratories. The report also shows that universities use their own institutional funds to subsidize a significant portion of the costs involved in performing research on behalf of the American people.
A new report by researchers at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve finds that new student loan limits imposed by Congress will lead to approximately one in eight graduate students struggling to secure sufficient educational loans from the private sector beginning in the upcoming academic year.