Harvard Privately Weighs $500 Million Fundraising Push for Scientific Research

Harvard is privately weighing a rapid-fire fundraising push to secure $500 million for University-wide scientific research priorities, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The $500 million target has been floated internally in recent conversations, the two people said, but is not a finalized goal. The two said the University was hoping to raise the money by the end of the academic year.

The short-term fundraising campaign would arrive in tandem with a sweeping University effort to rethink how Harvard will support its science and medical research in the wake of massive federal grant cuts.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 initiated a faculty Science Advisory Committee this summer to map out a long-term vision for scientific research, and the University set aside $150 million last week to fund cutting-edge projects.

The tentative fundraising initiative mimics a successful Faculty of Arts and Sciences campaign this spring to raise $100 million for endowed Ph.D. fellowships. That campaign, launched in February, met its goal within four months, and the FAS promptly announced another $100 million challenge.

The newest push appears to apply that template — short-term fundraising for targeted needs — more widely. As it stands, the University will seek fundraising support for defined scientific research occurring across Harvard, the two people said.

The flurry of fundraising activity indicates the University is eager to seize on donor interest that has not faded since Harvard bucked the White House’s demands last spring and took the Trump administration to court. Last fiscal year, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences raised roughly $800 million, overshooting a $500 million target.

It also suggests Harvard is thinking carefully about where it directs that momentum.

Of the $150 million infusion last month, $100 million will be distributed across Harvard’s individual schools. But a $50 million pot will be invested in four research priorities — neuroscience, energy and climate, immunology, and industry-partnered research — as well as University-wide computing infrastructure. Roughly $25 million of that pot is pencilled in for a new University-wide cluster of GPUs that could roughly double Harvard’s AI computing capacity, though the figure is not final.

A University spokesperson declined to comment on the fundraising push.

Though Harvard won back nearly $2.7 billion in frozen research funding last fall, the University’s finances continue to be in a precarious position. Harvard’s legal fees, which historically hovered around $20 million a year, leapt to more than $126 million in fiscal year 2025, and a new endowment tax as high as eight percent could cost the University more than $200 million every year.

The Trump administration has continued its pressure campaign against Harvard. Earlier this week, lawyers for the government urged a federal appeals court to reinstate the sweeping research cuts, arguing a judge overstepped their authority when they issued an injunction last fall.

The administration is also pursuing investigations into the University over its admissions practices, financial ties, and foreign programs. On Thursday, Vice President J.D. Vance announced that the Department of Labor was investigating Harvard and eight other universities over potential J-1 visa fraud, alleging the University was using foreign researchers to undercut the wages of American students and researchers.

The ongoing uncertainty has triggered conversations across the University about ways to reduce Harvard’s reliance on federal grants and diversify its funding sources.

Garber’s Science Advisory Committee appears poised to lead the work. Though the Committee is nascent, it has been tasked with outlining a new vision for scientific research across a multi-year horizon, and already has several subcommittees overseeing distinct areas of interest. The framework that the committee develops will then inform fundraising initiatives in partnership with Harvard’s Alumni Affairs and Development office.

At Harvard’s individual schools, similar work is ongoing.

The Harvard School of Public Health, which is especially reliant on government funding, has considered revamping their master’s programs and narrowing their research priorities in the wake of federal cuts. In private, the school has also weighed seeking corporate partnerships with top healthcare companies.

In an address to Harvard Medical School affiliates last month, Dean George Q. Daley ’82 said the school would lean into burgeoning artificial intelligence applications in medicine as “destabilizing” federal funding cuts threatened revenue.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at hcc.35. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Elise A. Spenner can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at elisespenner.82. Follow her on X @EliseSpenner.