In July, the Trump administration released a report proclaiming a “new golden age of American innovation.” The report, which redefines the United States’s research funding priorities and how federal research funding is allocated to universities and industry, emphasizes the potential of artificial intelligence in furthering scientific innovation and de-emphasizes “life sciences” research.
At Brown, the Division of Research is working to adapt to these shifting priorities — as they have adapted to the past two years of federal research challenges, including freezes of federal grants for scientific research. Even after a deal with the Trump administration to restore most funding, grants to some universities have been slowing. Meanwhile, AI and machine-learning research have begun to dominate National Institutes of Health-funded research.
According to Greg Hirth, Brown’s vice president for research, this phenomenon is “particularly obvious” in the National Science Foundation’s allocation of grants, in which funds have been reallocated to projects that use AI. Though Brown faculty researchers are working toward leveraging AI more in their projects already, this means that researchers have seen decreased funding from the NSF to conduct non-AI research that they would “normally” be doing.
Michael Littman, the associate provost for artificial intelligence, said that this is a break from the previous modes of thought at the NSF.
Previously, “the NSF would always try to support all research, all the things that researchers were doing, but maybe put a little more emphasis in one direction or another,” Littman said. But under the Trump administration, he believes that the sentiment is “if you’re not doing one of four things that were listed as priorities, then we don’t want to give you money.” The administration’s proposed mechanisms for a “new era of scientific discovery” center around AI development.
In a statement sent to The Herald, a NSF spokesperson wrote that the NSF remains committed to advancing national interests and providing funding to research proposals that are “aligned with agency priorities.”
“NSF’s funding decisions reflect a strategic alignment of resources in a constrained fiscal environment, prioritizing investments that address the most critical, high-priority challenges and opportunities identified by the Administration, Congress and the science and technology community,” the spokesperson wrote.
Littman noted that the Trump administration has decreased research funding more broadly and cut already allocated funds. “In addition to that redistribution where AI gets more of the pie, the pie got smaller.”
“At face value, it’s a good thing to get more university faculty engaged in solving problems of the day, and no one would argue that,” Hirth said. “To my perspective, a better way of doing that would be to provide additional funding for those activities.”
To help faculty understand how to use AI in their research, the University is hosting networking events as part of a series called “AI + X” that seek to foster relationships between AI researchers and Brown researchers to “ensure strong, credible technical foundations,” Edel Minogue, senior director of research strategy and development at the Division of Research, wrote in an email to The Herald.
The Division of Research has hosted three AI + X sessions in the past year, with a fourth, focusing on AI and the humanities, currently in the works.
In May, the University’s National Labs Day, the second since the event’s inception in 2024, focused AI’s potential in research. The event highlighted the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, which seeks to incorporate AI into scientific research.
According to Minogue, the University also increased its seed funding for AI-related research this year.
“Ultimately, research teams that thoughtfully and responsibly integrate AI into their workflows will be able to iterate much faster, and that speed and efficiency will become the new standard in the funding world,” Minogue wrote.
With the decrease in the certainty of funding, the Division of Research is also looking at external sources of funding, Hirth said. “Part of that is to redouble efforts to engage with industry,” he added.
The Division of Research is “trying to help people understand what opportunities that they might not have anticipated before,” he added.
Ian Ritter contributed reporting.
Angel Lopez is a senior staff writer covering Science and Research. He’s a sophomore from Tyler, Texas and planning to study neuroscience and literary arts. In his free time, you can find him playing ping pong, listening to music, or reading.
