Study links Trump's attacks on university research to decades of fossil fuel and donor influence

The authors argue that this loss of autonomy has left colleges more exposed to outside commercial pressure, particularly in climate and energy research. Noel Healy of Salem State University is the lead author.

In 2025, the administration froze billions of dollars in research funding, opened investigations into 75 institutions and pressed colleges to sign agreements supporting its policies in exchange for federal money. It canceled $4m in climate research grants at Princeton University alone and accused scientists of fueling "climate anxiety".

"If you're a young researcher watching that, you might think twice about asking a question that could cost you your funding," Healy said.

"Climate policy is only as good as the evidence behind it. When the industry being regulated gets to shape the questions researchers ask, it ends up shaping the policy too," he said.

"Since 2025, scientists have been deleting words like 'climate change' from their grant applications because those words can get an application rejected," Healy said. "Some universities have shut down programs before the government even asked them to, hoping to avoid becoming a target. You don't have to ban speech if people fear that speaking up will cost them their funding. People start deciding it's safer to stay quiet."

The Academic Freedom Index, which measures how freely scholars and universities can teach, research and express ideas without interference, puts US institutional autonomy at 1.7 in 2025, down from 3.3 in 2019, on a scale of 0 to 4.

Outside influence on US universities is not new. In the 1920s, electric utilities worked with academics to defend their monopoly positions and oppose regulation; fossil fuel companies followed in the 1950s, funding research that sowed doubt about the public health effects of their products. Internal industry documents show companies treated academic research as a way to build credibility and shape public debate.

Libertarian donor networks also influenced program content and faculty hiring and won seats on university governing bodies. David Koch, whose fortune came from Koch Industries, gave more than $185m to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and served as a lifetime member of its highest governing body. Between 2010 and 2020, six fossil fuel companies alone gave more than $700m to US universities, some of it under donor agreements that handed outside actors control over decisions traditionally made by faculty, including hiring and curricula.

Donor-influence models have also been written into state law. In 2016, the Arizona legislature created the first publicly funded libertarian academic center, and other states followed. Such centers bypass faculty control and answer to legislators; they are expected to receive $50m in US taxpayer dollars during the 2025-2026 school year, according to the Hechinger Report. From 2021 to 2023, more than 150 state bills were introduced targeting tenure, faculty governance and diversity, equity and inclusion, the study says.

The authors argue that soaring tuition and student debt, themselves products of the corporate model, have fed public mistrust of higher education. They say administrators must confront how corporate donors have reshaped their priorities, disclose donor contributions and influence, and give faculty committees the power to reject funding that undermines the university's public mission or creates conflicts of interest. Union contracts, they add, can protect faculty and give them leverage.

"Transparency lets you see the deal, but it doesn't let you stop it. Faculty need the power to review major gifts before they're accepted and to refuse the ones that threaten academic freedom," Healy said.

Universities do not have to start from scratch, the authors say. The national UnKoch My Campus campaign has published a model gift-acceptance policy that gives faculty a say before gifts with conditions are accepted.

Editor's Summary

The study in Energy Research & Social Science traces the Trump administration's 2025 research funding freeze, investigations of 75 institutions and grant cancellations to earlier decades of corporate and donor involvement in university governance. It reports a fall in US institutional autonomy in the Academic Freedom Index, from 3.3 in 2019 to 1.7 in 2025, and cites $700m in fossil fuel funding to universities between 2010 and 2020. The authors call for disclosure of donor influence and faculty power to reject conditional gifts.