University of Alaska reports $86.2M in frozen federal grants restored

Officials with the University of Alaska report more than $86 million in federal grants that were frozen or delayed by the Trump administration have been restored.

The update was provided to the University of Alaska Board of Regents at their quarterly board meeting on Friday by Shelby Beck, assistant director of federal relations for the university. The funds restored spanned 29 federal grants, totaling $86.2 million.  

“Our office is pleased to formally report to the board that the University of Alaska system no longer has any frozen or delayed federal grants,” Beck said.

But another 32 federal grants with remaining balances of $16.7 million have been terminated since 2025, she said. 

“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,” Beck added. 

At the meeting, regents and university officials did not directly address the Trump administration’s move to cut or freeze an estimated $177 billion in federal funding to universities and research divisions nationwide. But Beck acknowledged the UA funds were restored through 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. “Without their support, we would be in a very different situation.” 

Federal grant funding restored

The 29 restored grants include funding through the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Energy and Agriculture, across all three university systems, according to information provided by the university on Monday. 

At the University of Alaska Anchorage, that included five federal grants totaling $42.1 million.

Over $40 million was restored to the Department of Homeland Security’s Arctic Domain Awareness Center, which conducts research and education initiatives which supports the U.S. Coast Guard and a variety of academic and industry partners in the U.S. and Canada. 

At the University of Alaska Fairbanks, 21 federal grants were restored totaling $43.2 million. That included $13 million through the Department of Agriculture for a project to strengthen agricultural systems and workforce training, called the Diverse Next Gen Food Policy Leaders program. 

Grant funding of $9 million through the Department of Defense was restored for an entrepreneurship program called RISE-UP. Funding of $9 million for an energy research and development initiative called Galena Alaska Microgrid Riverine Hydrokinetics was restored, as well as $7.5 million for critical minerals mapping called the Northwest Region CORE-CM Project through the Department of Energy. 

At the University of Alaska Southeast, three federal grants were restored totaling $857,408, including $470,000 in funding from the Department of Agriculture for developing an educational pathway for geocultural sciences for rural and Alaska Native students of Southeast Alaska. 

Federal grant funding terminated

Of the 32 federal grants terminated since 2025, the university reported 16 grants were terminated at UAA totaling $3.77 million, 16 grants canceled at UAF totaling $12.9 million and no grants were terminated at UAS. 

At UAF, that included $8.8 million terminated through the U.S. Department of Education as part of grant funding for minority-serving institutions, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving programs and support services. When the cuts were announced last year, university officials said it affected programs at the Bristol Bay campus in Dillingham and in Fairbanks at the Community and Technical College focused on career training and workforce development, as well as student services. 

Nationwide, the Department of Education announced it would redirect $350 million in congressionally-allocated funding for minority-serving institutions elsewhere, part of the Trump administration’s initiative to eliminate programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion. 

In Alaska, Jonathan Taylor, UA director of public affairs, said by email Monday the reasons given by the Trump administration for terminating funding varied by project and grant program and was not immediately available, “but it was broadly due to a shift in federal priorities,” he said. 

Taylor said some grant managers were given explicit reasons, including “DEI-related reasons” while other funds were reallocated to other priorities.