The Research Policy Dispatch
Welcome to the Research Policy Dispatch - a free weekly newsletter for research managers and administrators, research development professionals, PIs, and anyone who cares about what is going on with the research enterprise in higher ed.
The Dispatch is a companion to the Research Policy Atlas - a searchable, relational database that tracks executive orders, legislative actions, agency notices, court rulings, and more. The Atlas gives you one place to connect the dots that affect research funding, compliance, and higher ed so you can translate and act.
This edition of the Dispatch was supposed to be about three minibus bills that Trump finally signed into law and what was on deck for what should have been a smooth passage of the next four, which includes the NIH budget tucked into the larger LHHS budget. As of this writing, the tragic and horrifying events that unfolded over the weekend in Minnesota have changed the calculus.
Those four bills were heading to the Senate, included an additional $10 billion for DHS, which funds ICE, on top of the $75 billion handed over in July with the passing of H.R.1; the so-called "One Big Beautiful Bill." Senate Democrats over the weekend have expressed their lack of cooperation with the DHS portion. Maybe they carve that out and proceed with 3 out of 4, but it’s not clear. As of now all 12 appropriations bills have passed the House, with 9 now needing to clear the Senate. For those agencies that fall in that basket, if they aren’t passed by January 30, 2026 they will again need a continuing resolution or experience a lapse in funding resulting in a shutdown.
I'll pick up the appropriations bills once we see where things might be heading and get into some interesting provisions that impact metascience. So instead, I'm going to take this time to walk through what I'm trying to accomplish with The Research Policy Atlas and why it matters.
Last week was eventful internationally. I was glued to the coverage in Davos and struck by the tone change toward the United States. Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney, delivered a speech that was equal parts brutal and brilliant. Toward the end of the week, I found myself thinking again about the reaction of most institutions of higher education and this idea that there is no safety in conformance and compliance. It dawned on me all at once: now is the time to focus and get our ducks in a row.
In that same vein of coming to the table in a focused state, over the past couple of weeks, I've been making editorial decisions about the best presentation and use case of The Research Policy Atlas. Initially, part of my mission was to bear witness and catalog the disruption and actions of this administration. But I've settled on something tighter. Last time, I mentioned the Unbreaking Project; I've started contributing to it, and they're doing the critical work of documenting and making sense of the timeline we are living in. My work and theirs align around a central insight: none of us need more information. If any of us have hope of taking meaningful action, we have to learn to critically ignore.
If you want to keep tabs on what this administration is doing regarding medical research funding, check out Unbreaking's timeline to help stay informed in a saner, more measured way.
They're bearing witness better than I am. So where does that leave me with The Research Policy Atlas? I'm laser-focused on sorting signal from noise. That's become a common buzz phrase but let me clarify what I mean. Signal is a verb - it changes what you do when you have information. Noise just changes how you feel.
Noise looks like daily political hot takes designed to provoke emotion, endless scenario planning for unlikely futures, performative positioning on every crisis, trying to predict who "wins" (which I can be guilty of), and the belief if you just stay on top of it all, it will all start making sense.
Signal looks like structural shifts that affect your leverage and dependencies, tracking repeated behavior rather than one-off events, focusing on where your organization is actually vulnerable, understanding how power is being applied, and identifying benefits and silver linings - even when no one admits them.
The Atlas now operates with a framework of 60+ specific topics, rolled up into 10 broad themes, which are now organized into four domains.
How These Domains Relate (The Logic of Separation)
These new domains help you answer 4 key questions:
Institutional Practice & Capacity: What can and should we (i.e., Institutions of Higher Ed) do, and do we have the capability? Ideas, strategy, and response live here.
Execution: How do we actually have to act and adapt in our day-to-day? This focuses on Research Administration, operations, implementation.
Research System Design & Money: How is the whole system financed and structured? Understanding this tells you where the leverage points are - what can actually be changed, what's structurally locked in, and where your institution/department is exposed when funding models shift.
Governance & Power: Who decides the rules and by what authority? The Trump administration has left us constantly asking "can he do that?", and the answer matters. This domain helps you understand who actually holds the levers of power, what they can and can't do legally, and when institutional pushback has teeth versus when you're fighting gravity. It's the difference between wasting energy on things outside anyone's control and focusing on fights where leverage and action exists.
Moving forward, I'll be helping users of the Atlas sort what's important and needs to be acted on from what's being launched at us in an attempt to "flood the zone with shit," à la Steve Bannon.
Here's a concrete example. In February 2025, NIH and other agencies released policy notices capping F&A at 15%. It was immediately challenged and has been working its way through the judicial system. Earlier this month, a three-judge panel determined it violated the Administrative Procedure Act. Hopefully you weren't like me and didn't become your own expert in F&A rates. I spent a year reading economics studies and 2017 congressional testimony. I like digging into the particulars, but it didn't help me be a better administrator of funds. In fact, if this policy had gone into effect, it would have been decidedly out of my control and not my problem. While these F&A policies where shocking and induced panic, they have proven to be a bunch of noise.
The Atlas is built for exactly this kind of sorting. It's designed to help you quickly identify whether something requires your immediate attention and action, or whether it's noise that's consuming energy you need elsewhere. My goal is simple: help you spend less time doom-scrolling policy updates and more time protecting what matters in your organization.
That's the work ahead and the clear path moving forward.
We control nothing, but influence everything.
Thanks for reading along. I look forward to sharing future editions with you and to navigating the “spirit of the time” together.
Until next time,
Sarah Trimmer, MPH
The Research Policy Dispatch
Federal policy is complex and constantly changing, but the Research Policy Atlas tracks it so you can focus on research.