UCLA puts federal cuts on display with science fairs

UCLA scientists, medical professors and graduate students are accustomed to presenting their research — into cancer, stroke, brain injury, nerve regeneration — at conferences of their peers with the aid of high-tech audio and visual equipment.

- BY JAWEED KALEEM

A PRESERVED brain highlights the UCLA Brain Research Institute's work.

But in back-to-back events in Westwood Village and on a campus courtyard last week, they tapped into their high school memories, erecting handmade posters on easels and bringing in props from their labs — including a human brain — to simply explain their complex work.

Welcome to the “Science Fair for Suspended Research,” perhaps an understatement of what’s at stake.

UC President James B. Milliken said early this month that the University of California is facing “one of the gravest threats in UC’s 157-year history” after the Trump administration cut off grants before demanding a $1.2-billion fine as punishment for UCLA’s alleged antisemitism.

Standing near their displays, these high-level researchers said they are nervous about the future of their life’s work.

The Trump administration has suspended $500 million of their medical and scientific research grants. The intent of the science fair — a rudimentary act of frustration and hope — was to garner more public attention for the lifesaving and cutting-edge research they quietly conduct behind closed lab doors.

Billions are similarly frozen at Harvard and other elite universities. At UCLA, nearly all the grants on hold are from the National Institutes of Health, after a court case led to the restoration of $81 million in briefly suspended National Science Foundation awards.

The fairs unfolded before a key federal court hearing this week that could bring back hundreds of millions of dollars in NIH funding. The UC regents will also meet for their first public discussions since the late July cuts.