Beck told the board that the university system no longer has any frozen or delayed federal grants, a development she credited to support from Alaska’s U.S. Republican Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski. “They have helped us address numerous administrative delays and other challenges in ensuring federal grants are released and awarded as Congress intended, we are deeply grateful to them,” she said.
The restored grants, totaling $86.2 million, came from the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Energy and Agriculture and spanned all three university systems. At the University of Alaska Anchorage, $42.1 million was restored, including more than $40 million for the Department of Homeland Security’s Arctic Domain Awareness Center, which conducts research and education initiatives that support the U.S. Coast Guard and academic and industry partners.
At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, 21 grants worth $43.2 million were restored, including $13 million for a Department of Agriculture project on agricultural systems and workforce training, $9 million from the Department of Defense for an entrepreneurship program called RISE-UP, $9 million for an energy research and development initiative called Galena Alaska Microgrid Riverine Hydrokinetics, and $7.5 million for critical minerals mapping through the Department of Energy. The University of Alaska Southeast had three grants restored worth $857,408, including funding for a geocultural sciences pathway for rural and Alaska Native students.
However, Beck noted that 32 federal grants with remaining balances totaling $16.7 million have been terminated since 2025. “We recognize the pain these terminations have caused, and while the odds are not great, we will continue to look for opportunities to restore terminated grants,” she said. Sixteen grants were terminated at both Anchorage and Fairbanks, with no terminations at Southeast. At UAF, that included $8.8 million terminated through the Department of Education as part of grant funding for minority-serving institutions, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving programs.
The Trump administration moved to cut or freeze an estimated $177 billion in federal funding to universities and research divisions nationwide. Jonathan Taylor, UA director of public affairs, said by email that reasons given for terminations varied by project and grant program and were broadly due to a shift in federal priorities. He said some grant managers were given explicit reasons, including DEI-related reasons.