photo by: University of Kansas

Various KU research activities are shown in a University of Kansas graphic.

KU posted a 17% increase in total research expenditures in 2024, with the total amount of research activities topping the half-billion dollar mark for the first time in the university’s history, KU announced on Friday.

The numbers, though, also served as a reminder of the rising stakes for KU as the Trump administration seeks to pull back on efforts related to diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education.

Among the statistics KU leaders released on Friday was that KU ranks No. 1 among U.S. public universities in terms of federal funding for social work research and No. 4 for education research. Both fields have significant amounts of research that focus on equity and diversity issues.

Friday’s announcement also highlighted the role that federal research funding plays across the entire campus. Overall, nearly 70% of all external research funding that came to KU in fiscal year 2024 came from federal sources, according to the newly released figures.

“Watching, planning and advocating. That’s our posture as we navigate the shifting federal landscape, trying to understand potential impacts to KU,” Shelley Hooks, KU’s vice chancellor for research, told research colleagues in a message this week.

In that message, Hooks said that KU has “received termination notices for a handful of federally funded projects.” Details on which projects have been terminated weren’t provided. Hooks said KU was working “to manage impacts on work and personnel.”

KU hopes to get more clarity in the next several weeks about how KU research and other operations will be impacted by various executive orders and agency decisions, a spokeswoman for KU told the Journal-World on Friday.

“We anticipate knowing more in the weeks ahead, as agency leadership solidifies, Congress works through the budget process and lawsuits proceed,” KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said via email.

For fiscal year 2024, which ended on June 30, KU spent $546.1 million on research activities, with much of that money coming from external grants won by the university. The $546 million figure was a 17% increase from a year ago, and marked the ninth consecutive year of increases for KU, which has made growing its research enterprise one of its top priorities. It touts that the research funding is paying for thousands of salaries, and that $86.5 million of the funding was invested in businesses or projects spread throughout 91 Kansas counties.

“As one of America’s leading research universities, KU is solving major problems facing Kansans and their communities while simultaneously serving as a vital economic engine for the state,” Matthias Salathe, KU’s chief research officer, said in a press release.

It is too early to know whether KU’s 2024 results will do much to increase KU’s standing in a closely watched national ranking of research activity among U.S. universities. The National Science Foundation’s Higher Education & Research Development Survey is about a year behind KU’s most recent numbers.

The most recent HERD Survey, as it is known, was released in November, and was based on fiscal year 2023 figures. In it KU held largely steady from the 2022 report. KU ranked 73rd among public and private universities for research expenditures, up from No. 74 in 2022. In the category of federally funded research activity, KU ranked 83rd in the most recent report, a drop of three spots from the 2022 numbers. KU had $245 million in federal research expenditures in 2024, up about 16% from a year ago.

KU leaders currently may be less worried about where the university stands in the rankings than where federal research funding stands overall in the Trump administration. Funding from the National Institutes of Health already has slowed dramatically in the first weeks of the Trump administration, according to multiple media reports. Lawsuits have been filed over those funding holds.

Additionally, on Feb. 14 the U.S. Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” calling for all federally funded universities to eliminate the use of race in all aspects of student, academic and campus life within 14 days. The letter does not have the full force of law, but as KU leaders said in a message to faculty and staff this week, the letter “does communicate the new administration’s interpretation of law and enforcement priorities.”

“The past month has seen a flurry of federal executive orders and legal actions that have created tremendous uncertainty for higher education, specifically in the areas of research and diversity, equity and inclusion,” Chancellor Douglas Girod said in a letter to the university community, which also was signed by Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer and Steven Stites, chief health sciences officer of the university.

KU may be facing some outsized risks in the research arena because of the amount of federal funding it receives for social science projects. The No. 1 and No. 4 rankings in social work and education are examples of areas that may get more scrutiny from federal officials.

Not all social work and education research projects involve diversity and equity issues, but many do. For example, KU’s School of Education operates a Center for Educational Opportunity Programs that in 2024 received a $21.8 million, multiyear grant to support students in the inner-city Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo. public school districts. In that grant announcement, KU touted the program as being about a “commitment to equity and opportunity in education.”

In the School of Social Welfare, KU in 2024 created a new research endeavor called the Center for the Advancement of Health Equity. That center was created to seek grant funding and conduct research on advancing “health equity for disadvantaged populations.”

Other signs are popping up around KU about the university’s uncertainty on how to proceed with diversity and equity issues. Since at least 2022 KU has hosted a program called the Racial Equity Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Awards, which provides funding to KU initiatives that advance racial equity work. Applications for the 2025 program were due in mid-November, but now KU’s webpage for the program says “This content is being reviewed in light of recent changes to federal guidance.”

That’s the same message that is atop the webpage of KU’s Office of Civil Rights & Title IX, which is the office responsible for working to make KU an “institution that is free from discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual violence, and retaliation,” that same KU webpage says.

Some titles within the university’s workforce also have changed. KU’s research enterprise previously had an “assistant vice chancellor for diversity, equity, inclusion + belonging.” The university on Friday confirmed that the title of that position changed in August to “assistant vice chancellor for impact & belonging.” However, two spokeswomen for the university did not respond to questions about why the diversity, equity and inclusion monikers were removed from the position. Nor did they respond to whether the position still has any responsibilities related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.