A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline

麻省理工学院校长 Kornbluth 关于资金与人才储备的致辞

Video transcript: A message from President Kornbluth about funding and the talent pipeline 视频文字记录：麻省理工学院校长 Kornbluth 关于资金与人才储备的致辞

MIT President Sally Kornbluth, May 14, 2026 麻省理工学院校长 Sally Kornbluth，2026年5月14日

Hello, everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve spoken with you all. But the Institute is facing ongoing challenges in two related areas: funding, and our talent pipeline. So I thought you’d appreciate hearing the facts. 大家好。距离我上次与大家交流已经过去一段时间了。目前，麻省理工学院在两个相关领域正面临持续的挑战：资金与人才储备。因此，我认为大家有必要了解这些事实。

First, funding. For more than a year, we’ve all worked on responding to extraordinary new and sustained pressures on our budget (due largely to the heavy new 8% tax on our endowment returns, a burden for MIT and only a few other peer schools). Across the Institute – centrally and in local units – it was clear to everyone that change was imperative, and you all took the challenge head on. That required serious effort and sacrifice. Some units are still working through the process, and I know the cuts have been painful. But please know that your efforts have been incredibly valuable – and I appreciate everything you’ve done to get us here. 首先是资金问题。一年多来，我们一直在应对预算方面前所未有的持续压力（这主要归因于对我们捐赠基金收益征收的 8% 的新税，这对麻省理工学院及少数几所同类院校来说是一项沉重的负担）。在全校范围内——无论是中央层面还是各部门——大家都清楚变革势在必行，你们也都勇敢地迎接了挑战。这需要巨大的努力和牺牲。一些部门仍在经历这一过程，我知道削减开支的过程非常痛苦。但请相信，你们的努力极其宝贵，我感谢你们为学校走到今天所做的一切。

Through all of this, of course, we’ve kept our eyes on Washington. In February, we heard welcome news regarding Congressional appropriations: Funding for many research agencies had been at least partially restored. The news seemed encouraging enough that I started hearing people ask if maybe these new developments in DC meant that we could step back from some of the budget cuts at MIT or at least feel confident that we’re past the storm. 在这一切过程中，我们当然一直密切关注华盛顿的动向。二月份，我们听到了关于国会拨款的好消息：许多研究机构的资金至少得到了部分恢复。这一消息似乎令人鼓舞，以至于我开始听到有人询问，华盛顿的这些新进展是否意味着我们可以撤回麻省理工学院的一些预算削减计划，或者至少可以确信我们已经度过了难关。

I really wish we could! But unfortunately, the answer is no – for a set of reasons. First, although Congress restored substantial agency funding, we can see in the numbers that federal funding is not actually flowing to MIT the way it typically has. Relatedly, some federal agencies are discussing the possibility of factoring in geography when they allocate their funds, rather than basing decisions on scientific merit alone. 我真希望可以！但遗憾的是，答案是否定的——原因有几点。首先，尽管国会恢复了大量机构资金，但从数据中我们可以看出，联邦资金并没有像往常那样流入麻省理工学院。此外，一些联邦机构正在讨论在分配资金时考虑地理因素的可能性，而不是仅仅基于科学价值来做出决定。

Compared to this time last year, MIT has experienced a decline in campus research activity funded by federal awards of more than 20%. Still more concerning is that our number of new federal research awards is also down more than 20%. While we’ve seen encouraging growth in research funding from other sponsors, it’s not nearly enough to offset the federal decline. 与去年同期相比，麻省理工学院由联邦奖项资助的校园研究活动下降了超过 20%。更令人担忧的是，我们获得的新联邦研究奖项数量也下降了超过 20%。虽然我们看到来自其他赞助商的研究资金有令人鼓舞的增长，但这远不足以抵消联邦资金的减少。

So here’s the big picture: Counting federal and non-federal sources together, our campus sponsored-research activity is now 10% smaller than it was a year ago. That is a striking loss for one of the most influential and productive research communities in the world. 这就是整体情况：将联邦和非联邦来源加在一起，我们校园的赞助研究活动现在比一年前减少了 10%。对于世界上最具影响力和生产力的研究社区之一来说，这是一个惊人的损失。

Now, the second challenge: Talent. I’ve said many times that MIT is in the talent business. Which means we’re very alert to changes in our talent pipeline. We’ve already seen clear signs that policy changes affecting international students and scholars are discouraging extremely talented individuals from applying to join our community. Right now, we’re coming to the end of admissions season. 现在谈谈第二个挑战：人才。我多次说过，麻省理工学院从事的是人才事业。这意味着我们对人才储备的变化非常敏感。我们已经看到明显的迹象，影响国际学生和学者的政策变化正在阻碍极具天赋的人才申请加入我们的社区。目前，我们正处于招生季的尾声。

For departments across the Institute, the funding uncertainty I talked about has made them cautious about admitting new graduate students. That caution is completely understandable: If federal grants continue to decrease, PIs just won’t have the funds to support additional students! But the cumulative impact directly affects our mission of research and education: Our graduate student enrollment decreased this year…and we expect that to continue next year. 对于全校各系而言，我所提到的资金不确定性使他们在录取新研究生时变得谨慎。这种谨慎完全可以理解：如果联邦拨款继续减少，首席研究员（PI）将没有资金支持更多的学生！但这种累积影响直接损害了我们的研究和教育使命：我们今年的研究生入学人数有所下降……而且我们预计明年这种情况还会持续。

Outside of Sloan and the EECS MEng program, still in the midst of admissions, compared with 2024, our departments’ new enrollments for next year are down close to 20%. That means that, in total, outside of Sloan, we could have about 500 fewer graduate students. Which means we’ll have many fewer students advancing the work of MIT, and undergraduates will have fewer grad students as mentors in their research. 除了仍在招生中的斯隆管理学院（Sloan）和电气工程与计算机科学系（EECS）的工程硕士项目外，与 2024 年相比，我们各系明年的新生入学人数下降了近 20%。这意味着，总的来说，除了斯隆学院，我们可能会减少约 500 名研究生。这意味着我们将有更少的学生来推进麻省理工学院的工作，本科生在研究中能得到的导师（研究生）也会减少。

But to me, far and away the worst impact is that hundreds of exceptionally talented young people will not have the benefit of an MIT education – and we won’t have the benefit of their creative brilliance. 但对我来说，最糟糕的影响是，数百名极其优秀的年轻人将无法获得麻省理工学院的教育机会，而我们也无法受益于他们的创造性才华。

As I’m sure you all understand, responding to these new pressures is not just a matter of belt-tightening – and it’s not “just trimming around the edges.” Last week, I spoke with several senior faculty members, in very different fields, all with long records of winning significant grants. All of them are now having to cut graduate students, postdocs and particular avenues of research. 我相信大家都明白，应对这些新压力不仅仅是勒紧裤腰带的问题，也不是“修修补补”就能解决的。上周，我与几位来自不同领域、长期获得重大资助的资深教授进行了交谈。他们现在都不得不削减研究生、博士后和特定的研究方向。

At the Institute level, we are working on plans to help support groups whose operations are seriously impacted by current federal funding lapses. But that will not be a long-term solution. The fact is that we’re looking at a real drop in research being done by the people of MIT. It’s a loss of momentum for faculty and students. And frankly, it’s a loss for the nation: When you shrink the pipeline of basic discovery research, you choke off the flow of future solutions, innovations and cures – and you shrink the supply of future scientists. 在学校层面，我们正在制定计划，以支持那些运营受到当前联邦资金短缺严重影响的团队。但这并非长久之计。事实是，我们正面临麻省理工学院研究产出的实际下降。这对教职员工和学生来说是动力的丧失。坦率地说，这也是国家的损失：当你缩减基础发现研究的渠道时，你就切断了未来解决方案、创新和疗法的来源，也减少了未来科学家的储备。

I know that hearing these facts all together feels pretty “chilly and overcast.” But I also know that, over its long history, MIT has confronted and pushed through many serious storms before. And I take heart in what I see here on campus every day: The same MIT intensity. The same enthusiasm. The same creativity and drive. 我知道把这些事实放在一起听起来让人感到“寒意阵阵、阴云密布”。但我也知道，在漫长的历史中，麻省理工学院曾多次面对并克服了严重的风暴。我从每天在校园里看到的一切中感到振奋：同样的麻省理工精神，同样的热情，同样的创造力和动力。

And the people of MIT are applying that same energy in many different ways to meet these new challenges to our mission. 麻省理工学院的人们正以多种不同的方式运用这种能量，来应对我们使命所面临的这些新挑战。

• Our faculty are rising to the moment with exciting ideas to meet emerging federal opportunities. For the Department of Energy’s new Genesis Mission – in a herculean effort by our faculty and administrative staff – MIT PIs recently submitted 176 grant proposals. These proposals offer a snapshot of first-class MIT science and engineering, in service to the nation.

  • 我们的教职员工正以令人兴奋的构想迎接当下的挑战，以抓住新兴的联邦机遇。针对能源部新的“创世纪任务”（Genesis Mission），在我们的教职员工和行政人员的艰苦努力下，麻省理工学院的首席研究员们最近提交了 176 份资助申请。这些提案展示了麻省理工学院一流的科学与工程水平，旨在服务国家。

• We’re aggressively pursuing new sources of funding, especially from industry, and we’re building on deep relationships, like the MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab, which we recently launched to shape the future of AI and quantum computing.

  • 我们正在积极寻求新的资金来源，特别是来自工业界的资金，并依托深厚的合作关系，例如我们最近启动的麻省理工-IBM 计算研究实验室，旨在塑造人工智能和量子计算的未来。

• We’re exploring new ways to generate income through educational offerings.

  • 我们正在探索通过教育产品创造收入的新途径。