By the end of last week the US government had ordered that all research funding to South Africa be frozen.
“Medical research in South Africa can be destroyed. The impact is enormous,” warned Professor Glenda Gray, one of the country’s leading researchers and former head of the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC).
South Africa and China were specifically mentioned in the letter by the US government to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Tuesday.
Also excluded are countries that allegedly finance terror, or against whom sanctions have been imposed, according to the “confidential letter” published by the science journal, Nature.
Columbia University in New York lost about $400 million (R7.3 billion) due to the institution’s handling of student protests against Israel due to the ongoing war in Gaza. Columbia has since backtracked, in an effort to get the money back.
Based on the letter to the NIH, it appeared that all research in South Africa and China was being targeted.
By Thursday afternoon, at least 35 programmes at 11 South African universities had been affected by the withdrawal of grants worth R1.5 billion, said Dr Phethiwe Matutu of Universities SA (USAf).
Matutu said USAf was collecting data from its members on the impact of the funding crisis to give to the Department of Higher Education and Training.
So far, Wits University has been hit hardest, with 1 771 positions affected.
The $2.5 million funding for a project at the Wits Health Consortium, led by Professor Helen Rees and Professor Ian Sanne, has been stopped, according to the health website bhekisisa.org.
The status of a $3.1 million grant for clinical trials in Soweto on, among other things, HIV/AIDSprevention, suddenly changed from “approved” to “pending”, according to Gray. The money was for a seven-year project.
“The NIH spends about $250 million per year through various agencies on research in South Africa.”
South Africa also managed some of the money for research projects elsewhere on the continent.