AMHERST — University of Massachusetts doctoral candidate Shannon Callaham had initially planned to spend time earlier this month analyzing interview data between Holyoke community members and energy industry professionals as part of a grant-funded project that centered around environmental justice in Holyoke’s transition to renewable energy.

Those plans quickly changed, however, when funding for her position was cut by the Trump administration, forcing Callaham to instead begin searching for a new source of funding to ensure that she has income and health care over the summer and the following semesters.

She and 17 other research fellows who are part of the Elevating Equity Values in the Transition of the Energy System (ELEVATE) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst lost critical federal funding. The ELEVATE program had been guaranteed two years of funding, but that money disappeared overnight when the National Science Foundation terminated a $6 million grant.

“It means figuring out where we will be able to find that money,” Callaham said. “It also means lost time because we have to apply for grants or teach a course instead of just focusing on research.”

ELEVATE is part of UMass’ Energy Transition Institute, an interdisciplinary initiative studying the most efficient and equitable ways to develop and implement the transition to renewable energy. The program started five years ago when the university received the NSF grant to build a research network that investigated every aspect of the energy systems, from computer science and engineering to public health and anthropology.

“Energy is so fundamental to society, it’s not just the electrical grid or wind and solar generation,” said Matthew Lackner, principal investigator of ELEVATE. “We brought together 38 students across the different departments, all touching on energy transition, and we built a really amazing community of students and faculty.”

One of these multidisciplinary projects, called “Community-Engaged Co-Design for a Just and Sustainable Energy Transition,” connects scientists with Holyoke community members to discuss residents’ challenges with energy systems and the most productive ways of solving them.

“In terms of the impact of the project already, it’s been building relationships, it’s been building knowledge of energy and it’s been building agency,” Callaham said, who also works on the project in addition to her Ph.D. research. “People see the values in their perspectives.”

Termination notice

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

Just before the team earlier this month to review its progress over the past year, Callaham said she received a termination notice for $1.1 million in grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s STAR program. The grant paid for the time, participation and expertise of Holyoke community members, as well as meals and child care during weekday night activities. The money also compensated graduate students for their work.

“This is something that has never happened before,” said Krista Harper, a principal investigator of the Holyoke Community Energy project. “Federal funding is supposed to be as good as it gets. It’s supposed to be secure and not bobbing around a lot.”

While Harper said the Energy Transition Institute is working with UMass to secure Research Continuity Emergency (ResCoE) funding to pay the graduate students, doctoral and postdoctoral candidates over the summer, mass grant terminations from the NSF and National Institutes of Health have increased competition for these funds, and additional research funds.

“Being on campus [last] week, it was as if an asteroid hit,” Harper said. “There were so many different grants that are being terminated all at the same time. NSF and NIH being radically cut will be something that will have a huge impact on this region and the state.”

Grant terminations and cuts to NIH funding for indirect research costs are major hits to the region’s revenues. A lawsuit filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on behalf of 22 states reports that in fiscal year 2024, the five UMass campuses received 501 grants from NIH worth $248 million. Nearly $80 million went toward indirect costs, which NIH capped at 15% of grant funding for all new and current awards in February.

An interactive map developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania estimates that Hampshire County could lose $15 million from the NIH’s grant cuts to indirect costs alone. UMass, specifically, could lose up to $10 million.

“I think in areas of renewable energy and energy transition, my hunch is, yes, federal funding will be extremely rare and unlikely,” Lackner said. “Given that grants will be canceled in this area, it’s hard to imagine new grants being made.”

Community connection lost

Lackner credited federal funding as the main thread connecting the ELEVATE students and community, and the loss of this thread will force a restructuring, and possibly shrinking, of the program.

Already, the seven fellows accepted into ELEVATE for the fall semester no longer have funding, and Lackner is unclear whether they will join the program.

“Students become the pioneers and scientists who work at natural labs and research institutes,” he said. “If that pipeline gets turned off, it hurts the economy and society as a whole.”

Harper and Lackner hope that states will step up to fill the void in research funding, and the Energy Transition Institute will continue to apply for grants as they appear, Lackner said.

Even without funding, however, the people at the Energy Transition Institute remain.

Callaham and Harper assert that the Holyoke Community Energy project and the people involved “are not disappearing,” and the group will continue to invest their energy and time into the Holyoke community.

Callaham plans to continue her research on Massachusetts’ Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness 2.0 program, but she might take a couple of teaching assistant jobs to fund her work.

The relationships built through ELEVATE, Lackner said, will continue to endure regardless of the program’s future.

“We have these really wonderfully smart and energetic and optimistic and collaborative and creative students that do really cool research that’s trying to help lead the energy system to one that’s more sustainable, more affordable and benefits everybody,” Lackner said. “Those students will still have amazing careers and impact the world positively, and I feel for them, how disruptive this is for them.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com