A note for academic friends
A number of you are likely to be impacted by the new federal administration’s fiscal malfeasance. If NSF/NIH/etc. is holding back your already-granted funding, this document is for you. I’m not an attorney. This is not legal advice, but rather an academic’s perspective from a rough-and-tumble portion of the world outside academia:
While it will feel good to complain about fiscal holds with colleagues and the community, what you probably need is a good lawyer, probably your university’s in-house counsel. Legislators may be able to assist, but they’ll be able to help more if you’re already standing up for yourself.
Your research-funding grants are very likely contracts wherein the federal government is the customer and you’re the supplier. You do research, they pay you and your institution for that research. The federal government has been such a reliable customer for so long that everyone has forgotten the notion of counterparty risk – the risk that the customer might simply default/breach and stiff the supplier.
Your sole customer is reneging on a long-term contract around which your entire life, career, and institution are presently structured. In the business-world, the thing to do to a customer like that is to take them to court. Immediately. If your customer changes course, you can always drop the suit.
If your funding is at risk, get on the phone with your university’s in-house counsel. Don’t wait. Have the dollar-amount (after overhead) that is at-risk at your fingertips. If the grant-agency comes to its senses, that’ll be good. If it doesn’t, you’ll be glad you started early. The university’s incentives should be mostly aligned with yours at the moment, so in-house counsel is a good bet (and has the financial backing that is critical).
Some keywords that may be helpful in that call, “contract”, “contract of adhesion”, “detrimental reliance”, “class-action”, “FOIA”, and “damages”.
A key legal question, to which I do not know the answer, is whether or not Congress has deigned to allow grant-recipients to sue for damages, in addition to the grant-award, in the situation you presently find yourselves in. There may be existing federal law governing the grants themselves and outlining the process for grievances and conflicts.
If your institution is too-spineless to stand up for its researchers, lest the feathers of the new federal administration become ruffled, options may still exist. Consider banding together with other researchers to secure legal representation. Existing institutions (faculty senate, post-doc/grad-student unions, student associations, etc.) may be helpful in facilitating those connections.
Legal conflict, especially transactional law, is not an environment with which research-academics generally have much experience. The rules may not operate the way you think they do, even when the letter of the law is clear, or perhaps they only will do so on appeal. It is slow, it is difficult, it is expensive, and, very unfortunately, it is by default a full-on bar-fight unless your counterparty demonstrates that they are collaborative and honorable.
Know that, in these United States, it is often an uphill battle for the prevailing party to recover attorneys’ fees from the losing party in a civil lawsuit – it is possible to win in court but pay more to win than the case is worth. Good attorneys generally bill at $300-$600/hr, mostly at the higher end. Get recommendations from knowledgeable friends in business.
Welcome to the big leagues. Good hunting.
Measured Mass 