The University of Colorado Boulder is reporting that 54 of its research awards and grants have been terminated or affected by stop-work orders from the Trump administration as of Tuesday, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in financial impact.

The impacted grants come from a variety of federal agencies that fund CU Boulder research, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“The financial impact of grant terminations at the University of Colorado Boulder is in the tens of millions of dollars,” CU Boulder spokesperson Nicole Mueksch wrote in an email. “More importantly, these grants fund critical research that ultimately contributes to the nation’s economy, job market, national security and competitiveness with other countries.”

A grant termination means the federal agency has ended the grant funding, and a stop-work order is a directive from a federal agency instructing researchers to stop all work. Stop-work orders can apply to part of a research project or the entire project, and they can be temporary or permanent.

The grant terminations and stop-work orders at CU Boulder come as widespread research and education cuts from the Trump administration are impacting universities and federal agencies nationwide.

As of early April, the University of Colorado suffered $25.5 million in losses due to the elimination of federal funding under the Trump administration, including a $9.4 million loss at CU Boulder. CU System Chief Financial Officer Chad Marturano noted at the time that those amounts could increase moving forward.

As of Tuesday, Mueksch said, eight employees have experienced some sort of employment impact related to a grant termination or stop-work order. In April, several faculty members shared how federal funding uncertainty was impacting them, their research and their students.

Mueksch did not say what the university expects to happen moving forward, including whether the university believes these grant terminations and stop-work orders will continue or increase.

The largest number of the 54 awards terminated or affected by stop-work orders came from the National Science Foundation, which accounted for 24 of the 54 impacted grants. The National Endowment for the Humanities and National Institutes of Health had five impacted grants each, and the Environmental Protection Agency had four.

Three grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services were impacted, along with two grants each from the Department of Defense and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One CU Boulder grant from each of the following agencies were also impacted: the Army Research Office, the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Energy, the Department of Justice, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United States Agency for International Development.

One of the terminated National Science Foundation grants was funding research done by CU Boulder students who worked to develop more engaging, accurate and useful AI, or Artificial Intelligence, content for young learners. Their goal was to find ways to improve learning outcomes and help young learners become critical thinkers.

A terminated Department of Defense grant shuttered a cooperative agreement between CU Boulder, CU Denver, Denver-area community colleges and industry partners that broadened educational and career pathways for aspiring engineers interested in pursuing high-wage, high-demand STEM careers. Internship opportunities with leading engineering firms and federal contractors were lost for more than 65 current students in Colorado because of the termination, Mueksch said.

Another grant from the Environmental Protection Agency aimed to reduce health risks from wildfire smoke near schools, and a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development was funding CU Boulder researchers trying to provide Armenia with the knowledge and tools it needs to adopt more sustainable water management practices.

As of fiscal year 2024, CU Boulder had 1,243 federal awards, $495.5 million in federal funding and 818 principal investigators, or lead researchers on a project.

CU Boulder research expenditures in fiscal year 2023-2024, including equipment, construction, operations and labor, were estimated at $737 million, according to the 2023 to 2024 University of Colorado Economic Contribution Analysis. The economic impact of these research activities on the Colorado economy totaled $1.4 billion.