When the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was shut down in 2025, most people thought the decision only impacted foreign aid programs abroad. What many didn’t realize is that universities also were also left reeling from the abrupt dismantling. Indiana University (IU) was among this group, with many of their research projects and funding diminished or cut all together.

For years, USAID had been partnering with universities to support research areas including global health, education, agriculture, economic development, and international policy. USAID-funded grants allowed faculty and students the opportunity to work on projects that addressed real-world issues while building partnerships with researchers across the globe.

When the administration dismantled USAID, IU, along with other universities, was profoundly affected. The severing of funds and the stop-work orders issued by the U.S. Government forced researchers at IU to pause their work while the federal government reviewed funding. This left many projects in limbo at crucial junctures and created uncertainty for faculty, staff, and students.

One example of a vital program supported by USAID funding is Indiana University’s longstanding AMPATH partnership. As part of the AMPATH program, the IU School of Medicine partners with the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya, and had been receiving USAID grants to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and deliver health services across western Kenya. The program enables medical students train abroad alongside local peers, treating advanced diseases rarely seen in the U.S. and learning to diagnose through clinical reasoning rather than costly tests, which builds adaptable, cost-conscious clinicians. The exchange runs both ways, with Kenyan students rotating through IU’s campus, and it opens early research opportunities to co-author papers and join major global health studies.

There are many more. In Vietnam, Indiana University carried out USAID-funded work including the Partnership for Higher Education Reform project to strengthen university governance, teaching, research capacity, and industry linkages at public universities; in Myanmar, its Kelley School of Business received a USAID Global Development Alliance grant to support the Yangon Institute of Economics and help small and medium-sized enterprises grow; in South Sudan, it ran a $2.5 million USAID program providing master’s-degree scholarships in education to students at the University of Juba; and in Pakistan, it managed technical assistance and faculty and library development grants with institutions such as the Institute of Education and Research in Lahore.

Photo Credit: PHER Vietnam

For Indiana University students, these USAID-funded partnerships opened doors that were hard to find anywhere else. They gave students hands-on global fieldwork and clinical or professional experience abroad, working alongside international peers on real development challenges in Vietnam, Myanmar, South Sudan, and beyond. Students learned to adapt in unfamiliar, resource-limited settings, built cross-cultural skills, and contributed to meaningful work early in their training. Many gained research opportunities that let them co-author publications and join major international studies while still in school, and those who came up through programs like AMPATH in Kenya developed into more observant, resourceful, and globally minded professionals.

Although IU has not released a specific amount tied to the funding disruption, the effects went beyond the grants themselves. Federal research funding had helped pay for graduate assistants, research staff, laboratory resources, and the administrative support to keep these projects running. When funding was interrupted, research slowed down, student opportunities became limited, and long-standing international partnerships fell apart.

To help, IU expanded bridge funding opportunities, giving faculty temporary financial support while they searched for new funding sources. While those efforts helped keep some projects alive, they could not fully replace the stability provided by the USAID federal grants.

The USAID shutdown is a reminder that decisions like this do not just affect government agencies or aid recipient countries, but also have direct repercussions for Americans themselves. For Indiana University, the loss of USAID funding meant more than just a financial setback. It meant heartbreaking delays in discoveries, interrupted collaborations, and uncertainty for people working to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.

Tell Your Member of Congress

The Alliance for American Leadership (A4AL) is a grassroots, Gen-Z-led coalition working to restore bipartisan support for USAID and foreign assistance. As researchers and institutions grapple with funding disruptions, our coalition is working to keep the case for reinstating USAID front and center. Many A4AL interns and volunteers are students currently at universities or colleges. Thanks to support from readers like you, they are urging Congress every day to increase funding for these important programs.

Help us make the case for sustained investment in foreign aid and the research that benefits us all. If you learned something from this article, please consider making a donation to A4AL. Each donation helps us get more volunteers in D.C. to meet with Members of Congress, mobilize more communities and college campuses, and keep foreign assistance on Congress’s agenda.

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