Supporting & Advancing Our Research Mission
Dear members of the Columbia community,
As many of you are likely aware, in late May, the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) proposed sweeping revisions to the Uniform Guidance, the rules, governing federal grants and other forms of federal financial assistance. These proposed changes would affect the basic framework through which federal agencies award, manage, and terminate federal grants.
For many decades, the partnership between the federal government and U.S. universities has been a great American success story and an important engine of national and economic progress. It has helped produce lifesaving medical advances, transformative technologies, healthier communities, and a deeper understanding of the world around us. That unique and productive partnership has been strengthened and solidified by several core principles that have served our shared enterprise: rigorous peer review and merit-based decision-making, an effort to generate a meaningful degree of funding predictability, and commitments to academic freedom and to advancing research and knowledge in the public interest.
The proposed OMB Uniform Guidance revisions threaten to weaken or undermine these essential principles in a number of important ways. They would significantly increase the politicization of the grant review process by allowing considerations unrelated to scientific merit more regularly to override expert evaluation. They would create worrisome funding uncertainty by expanding the government’s ability to terminate awards mid-stream. They would restrict lawful forms of international collaboration and could discourage broad and open dissemination of research results. If adopted, these changes could take effect as early as October 1, 2026.
As I begin my tenure as Columbia’s president, I want to reaffirm the central importance of our research enterprise to the University’s academic mission. It fuels discovery, enriches teaching, advances patient care, and enables Columbia’s impact to reach communities around the world. In support of that mission, today, Columbia University submitted its comments to the OMB as part of the federal rulemaking process. I encourage you to read our publicly available comments, which were spearheaded by Jeannette Wing, our executive vice president for research (EVPR).
Many organizations and individuals have publicly voiced their concerns, including our member organizations, the Association of American Universities (AAU), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and the Council on Government Relations (COGR). I know many of you have submitted comments of your own. Thank you for that. To date, OMB has received nearly 300,000 individual comments. The comment period closes today.
Jeannette and her team have been working with our government relations team and member organizations to amplify Columbia’s voice in response to the proposed rules. I want to thank them for leading this effort on behalf of the University. Jeannette will continue to update our community on this issue as the rulemaking process moves forward. In the meantime, please continue to visit the EVPR’s Federal Research Updates page for more information and resources.
I am heartened by the groundswell of support across the country for the U.S. research enterprise, and grateful to all in our community who contribute to Columbia’s research excellence.
Sincerely,
Jennifer L. Mnookin
President, Columbia University in the City of New York