By SUSAN JONES

The University of Pittsburgh has joined with 23 other public and private universities in filing an amicus brief in support of Harvard University’s lawsuit against the Trump administration, which has cut or frozen roughly $2.8 billion of Harvard’s research grants and contracts.

Geovette Washington, Pitt’s chief legal officer, said at a June 11 town hall webinar that the friend of the court brief filed June 9 “highlights the important role the partnership between research universities and the federal government has had in making the United States a global leader, and the impact that funding cuts could have on that position going forward.”

The brief, which supports Harvard’s motion for summary judgment, gives several examples of how the schools that signed it have furthered scientific progress, including “making the first life-sustaining liver transplant possible” at Pitt.

It also stresses the collaborative nature of this research: “This sustained investment in research universities has delivered for the American public. One need look no further than the Internet to find a shining example. The Internet was not the product of a single creator’s lightbulb moment. It emerged from a decades-long collaboration among academia, government, and industry.”

Also signing the amicus brief were: American University; Boston University; Brown University; California Institute Of Technology; Colorado State University; Dartmouth College; Georgetown University; Johns Hopkins University; Massachusetts Institute Of Technology; Michigan State University; Oregon State University; Princeton University; Rice University; Rutgers University; Stanford University; Tufts University; University Of Delaware; University Of Denver; University Of Maryland, Baltimore; University Of Maryland, College Park; University Of Oregon; University Of Pennsylvania; and Yale University.

The brief  stresses that, “Extensive cuts to federal research funding to universities threaten much of what has made the U.S. research enterprise a juggernaut of growth and prosperity. Even schools that do not experience direct cuts will suffer. Scientists work across institutions; grants issued to one university frequently support researchers from others. … The withdrawal of federal support at even one institution is thus a blow to the entire ecosystem and deters the long-term investment necessary for scientific and technological progress.”

Washington said that the national associations that Pitt is involved with also filed amicus briefs in the Harvard case, and Pitt played a role in vetting those legal arguments and pleadings, “as well as others that they are considering in the coming days.”

“These legal responses do not happen in a vacuum, but instead are informed by the conversations that we are having with our campus community as well as our discussions with peers in the communities of which we are members across the country,” Washington said.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

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