K-State awaiting guidance as $50 million from USAID hangs in limbo

K-State has been awarded at least three projects over the past two years by USAID. But the shutdown of the agency by billionaire Elon Musk and the Trump administration makes it unclear what will happen to that funding.

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February 7, 2025 - 5:28 PM

The K-State campus. (Dreamstime/TNS)

MANHATTAN (KSNT) — Kansas State University is waiting answers after President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s move to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

USAID’s website has been taken offline, hundreds of contractors have been laid off and employees are being locked out of their accounts one by one without notice. Last year, K-State was awarded $50 million over the next five years to fund agricultural research on multiple continents. In 2023, USAID awarded $22 million to K-State with a ceiling of $37 million to fund cereal crop research.

“I am able to share that federal funding supports research at Kansas State University with outcomes that advance biosecurity, agriculture, engineering and human and animal health in Kansas and beyond,” K-State Director of News and Communications Services Michelle Geering said. “We are awaiting updates and guidance from our federal partners and will take action as needed.”

Nina Lilja, associate dean in K-State’s College of Agriculture said USAID has invested close to $128 million in K-State innovation labs for agricultural research.

“When it comes to resilience in farming, Kansas is the place,” K-State Climate Resilient Sustainable Intensification Lab Director Vara Prasad said in a November 2024 K-State press release. “So what we learn from other countries is going to be extremely valuable for Kansas and other places around the country and world.”

Trump and Musk have moved to shut down USAID, which spent some $30 billion last year on humanitarian, development and security aid to more than 100 countries.

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