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At the same time, the UA has now allocated $1 million in funds to bridge those gaps.

The National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities have terminated the most research grants, but the largest amount of money lost has been through grant terminations by the National Resources Conservation Service, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Environmental Protection Agency, said UA Secretary of the Faculty Katie Zeiders in an email to faculty senators Thursday.

UA colleges affected the most by terminated grants were listed by Zeiders as the College of Engineering, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Zuckerman College of Public Health, the College of Medicine, and the College of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences.

The university’s bridge funding program was announced by Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation Tomás Díaz de la Rubia on March 6, days after researchers blasted him for not having a plan to deal with the Trump administration’s cuts to federal research funding.

In an interview with the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ in April, Díaz de la Rubia said there was no budget cap on the bridge funds and that “everybody that has asked for bridge funding (and) conforms to the requirements of the solicitation that we put out, has received and is in the process of receiving bridge funding.â€� He said UA administrators would evaluate this summer where the program stands.

The bridge funds are for “faculty with an established track record of extramural funding who are experiencing temporary disruptions in external funding, particularly due to the delays or gaps in funding decisions or other disruptions to active grants.� The aim is to ensure the continuation of research projects and preservation of PhD student support, UA has said.

“So far, 19 proposals have been approved, and all qualifying requests have been funded,� Zeiders said in her email, without saying how many total proposals were received.

UA spokesperson Mitch Zak told the Star, “The U of A’s nationally recognized Bridge Funding Program is one way we help ensure continuity in our important research work by providing support when external grant funding is delayed or disrupted. We also support our researchers and file appeals when projects have been terminated.�

“The U of A has made 19 bridge funding awards, and every request that met the application criteria has received support. No eligible applications have been denied,� Zak said, but didn’t specifically say how many requests for bridge funding had been received.

Zak did not directly answer questions on whether $1 million is enough to bridge the funds lost from federal cuts, considering the loss so far is $60.8 million in unspent funds, according to Zeiders’ email.

He pointed to a recent interview in in which Díaz de la Rubia spoke about the $1 million amount.

While a million won’t cover all the terminated grants, “the bridge has to go somewhere,� Díaz de la Rubia said in the article, adding that the bridge funds aren’t supporting projects that don’t have viable alternative long-term funding options.

“We’re providing funding for projects where the faculty member has other sources of funding and other proposals with the same or different federal agencies,� he said. “So far, we’ve been able to support every request that we’ve received through this process.�

He also said UA is working with local, state and federal lawmakers, as well as companies that rely on university research, to make a case for preserving research funding and its economic benefits for taxpayers.

Keith Maggert, a UA professor of molecular and cellular biology who has received bridge funds, said $1 million in the overall fund may be enough, as the “limits of eligibility for bridge funding are pretty strict.�

“Bridge (funds) should be to support faculty between unfunded and funded (research), not just to pay for all research,� Maggert said.