The Wyss Institute, part of the Harvard system, had to halt work on three federal contracts totaling over $20 million following a stop work order imposed by the Trump administration. The disruption has forced the lab to seek alternative funding while assessing the damage to its critical research on public health and technological innovations.

Wyss Institute’s founding director, Dr. Don Ingber, expressed pride in Harvard University’s decision to reject the Trump administration's demands which led to a freeze on over $20 million in funding, affirming the Institute's commitment to academic freedom and life-saving research despite halted federal contracts.

Amid a broader funding freeze imposed by the Trump administration on Harvard and its affiliates for refusing to dismantle DEI initiatives, the Wyss Institute’s founding director, Dr. Donald E. Ingber, received stop-work orders on two contracts, including one valued at over $15 million. This punitive action is part of an authoritarian response against institutions that uphold progressive academic values and resist political meddling.

The article references the Wyss Institute’s development of the RoboBee, a microdrone unveiled in 2019 designed for beneficial applications such as environmental monitoring, search and rescue, and crop pollination. While the technology has promising civil applications, its similarities to surveillance microdrones highlight the broader dual-use debate surrounding microdrone technology.