Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 28, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 15 "When you're deemed a Re- search 1 institu- tion, there's this perception, or perhaps the reality, that you have a more prestigious degree, so students are more attracted to your university," Akindele said. "Students in STEM are more attracted to doing research from the get-go. I think it shows we know what we're doing." WPI's research abilities have evolved a lot since Vernescu first arrived in 1991. About 20 PhD students gradu- ated in the average year in the mid- 90s, compared to 88 doctoral degrees during fiscal 2023, he said. e Carnegie Foundation requires institutions to spend at least $50 mil- lion on research and development and award at least 70 research doctorates annually. e WPI research funded in 2024 included $3.7 million award from the U.S. Department of Education to develop an AI math tutor, $3.7 million from the National Institute of Men- tal Health to develop a new method for modeling brain activity, and $2.5 million from the National Science Foundation to develop strategies and resources to boost success of low-in- come computer science undergradu- ates. is research's impact spreads be- yond the WPI campus, Veresecu said, creating a real economic impact in Central Massachusetts and beyond. "In the last 12 years, we started 26 companies in different stages of devel- opment," he said. "Five of them were in the 2024 Top 100 GreenTech Com- panies in Times Magazine, so there are companies that have cutting-edge technology." ese companies include Ascend El- ements, a Westborough-headquartered firm co-founded by WPI professor Yan Wang, which recovers battery materials from lithium-ion batteries to produce new, engineered battery material. e company has raised more than $1.8 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase. Echoing a national trend among uni- versities, growing ever since the 1960s Sputnik-inspired scramble to increase the country's research capabilities, WPI is reliant on federal funds for much of its research. e U.S. Department of Defense was the WPI largest source in fiscal 2024, providing about $15.5 million in funding, followed by NSF, at approximately $14 million. Other contributing agencies include Kola Akindele, asso- ciate vice president, external relations & partnerships at WPI the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, and the Department of Education, the last of which the Trump Administration is now attempting to eliminate. Federal hacking and slashing In his time at WPI, Vernescu has seen multiple federal administrations of both political parties come and go. With those changes come different sets of priorities for where research money should be spent, he said. "Usually, new administrations have new ideas on how to do things," Ver- nescu said. While different administrations always bring different priorities, the disruption and uncertainty caused by the second Trump Administration has been unprecedented, said Isaac Kamo- la, director of the American Associa- tion of University Professors Center for the Defense of Higher Education. e Trump Administration's ap- proach toward higher education is having a significant negative impact on research efforts, said Kamola. "Trump has passed some executive orders that are nonsensical gobble- dygook about diversity, equity, and inclusion, based on some profoundly ideological understandings of what takes place on college campuses," Kamola said. "He is then using that to hack and slash at already-existing and already-funded projects, with none of the kind of internal assessment, debate, deliberation and without a timeframe allowing for scholars to adapt to these changing priorities." A major method of attack for the Trump Administration has been the cancelling of already-issued grants, causing major setbacks for institutions like UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester. UMass Chan has already seen more than $30 million in expected grant funding withheld or withdrawn, with a further $50 million at risk due to potential proposed cap on indirect NIH costs. Harvard University has had it worse, having seen almost $2.7 billion in canceled or withheld federal research support, according to a May article from CNN. For WPI, the damage so far has been lighter; the university has seen a total of 10 grants canceled, totalling just un- der $2.3 million, according to informa- tion provided by WPI. e bulk of that total comes from two canceled NIH grants totalling just over $2 million. One of the grants canceled was for U-RISE, a program funded by NIH to support undergraduate students from underrepresented populations pur- suing doctoral degrees in biomedical sciences. Another one of the canceled grants involves a study of RNA in the egg cells of worms, according to a list of terminated grants provided by HHS. is study could unlock information to help researchers understand more about reduced fertility in older women, according to the study's abstract. HHS listing of terminations does not provide insights on why grants were canceled. While the focus of the fertility-re- lated study does not appear to be at odds with the Trump Administration's higher education agenda, its abstract does contain four words or phrases — expression, mRNA, trans, and women — identified as search terms being used by federal officials to target grants for immediate cancellation, according to Grant Watch, a website tracking canceled grants. "Trans" appears in the study's abstract as part of the words "transla- tion" and "transcriptomic," the latter meaning the study of RNA transcripts produced by organisms and cells. e study does not involve gender- or LGQBT+related topics. is arbitrary keyword-search meth- od to defunding projects has been used by the Trump Administration since late February, according to a June article from e New York Times. "I was on a webinar where one cancer researcher was talking about studying basic research into cancer, which has to do with the process of segregation, which is how cells mutate," Kamola said. "at's a technical term in cancer research, but because it used this language of segregation, it was flagged and defunded. at arbitrari- ness is still very much at work. ere's no clear sense of why these things are being cut." e Trump Administration will inflict large-term damage to the higher educational research ecosystem, scaring away top global talent, harming the fight to cure diseases like cancer, and disrupting research into scientifical- ly-proven facts revolving around racial disparities in health care, Kamola said. Strategizing and diversifying Not finding itself under a federal funding siege like some other Massa- chusetts universities, WPI is hoping the wide range of its research will allow it to stay competitive for whatever fund- ing is available, said Akindele. "We're making sure where those lie, what the status of the grants are, and then we can sort of see our response from those agencies," Akindele said. "But given the diversity of our re- search capacity, I think we're able to position ourselves to be competitive in terms of securing those awards. We'll continue to push forward and have our faculty members continue to position themselves to secure funding going forward." WPI is advocating with the state's fed- eral delegation to ensure money keeps flowing and finding ways to attempt to make up for any shortfalls with state or private funds, Akindele said. e state has made meaningful contributions in the past, including a 2017 matching grant of $5 million to fund Practice- Point at WPI, a simulated healthcare setting integrating advanced research and development infrastructure. Despite the federal storm clouds, Ver- nescu has faith in the three-legged stool of education, research, and partnerships, hoping existing relationships with the business community will open up re- search funding, which in turn can lead to more economic growth in the region. "We're thinking about the university as an ecosystem," he said. "We're not thinking about education and sepa- rately about research, and we're not thinking about our partners separate from education and research." HIGHER EDUCATION F O C U S WPI's research funding sources Like most universities, the vast majority of WPI's research funding comes from federal sources. Funding Percent source Total of total Federal government $49.8M 83% State and local government $6M 10% Corporate $1.2M 2% Other $1.8M 3% Foundation $1.2M 2% Source: WPI FY2024 Annual Research Report Canceled WPI grants WPI has seen grants issued by four differ- ent federal agencies canceled since the start of the Trump Administration. Federal # of Funding agency awards lost National Institutes of Health 2 $2,020,000 National Science Foundation 5 $234,000 Environmental Protection Agency 2 $39,400 USAID* 1 $0 10 $2,293,400 *Grant canceled after money had already been allocated Source: Worcester Polytechnic Institute W

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