U Penn’s federal funding drops 7% forcing cuts, hiring freeze, and research uncertainty ahead

University of Pennsylvania received $948 million in federal funding for FY2025, a 7% drop from $1.02 billion, reflecting tightening grant cycles and policy uncertainty. The majority of funding comes in the form of multiyear research grants from the National Institutes of Health supporting biomedical, defense, and science initiatives. Cuts, including a proposed 15% cap on NIH costs, have triggered hiring freezes at the university as well as 4% budget reductions and steep graduate admissions cuts. Assistance sub-awards plunged 49%, while sub-contracts rose 7%, signaling shifting patterns of collaboration and constraints on future research.