AMHERST — Money targeted for both strategic investments and deferred maintenance on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus is being temporarily diverted to a new account that will ensure research continues uninterrupted, should federal grants and contracts be paused or ended.

The creation of the Research Continuity Emergency Matching Fund, also known as ResCoE, was announced in a letter sent to the UMass community late last week by Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Mike Malone, vice chancellor for research and engagement.

At the direction of Chancellor Javier Reyes, the new matching fund was created as a way to counter the possibility of losing $150 million in research funding from federal grants and contracts secured by UMass each year.

“These funds support groundbreaking research that contributes to the future prosperity, health and security of our nation,” Abd-El-Khalick and Malone wrote. “Under the new federal administration, the continuity of these funds and the promise of discovery and innovation they bring has become uncertain.”

Already, the Trump administration has paused federal research funding and terminated some grants from the National Institutes of Health, and has also placed a 15% cap on the indirect costs paid for under both current and future grants from that agency.

The UMass letter continues, “Our highest priority in addressing this uncertainty is to support those community members whose livelihoods are put at risk by the interruption of federal funding: graduate students, postdocs, research staff and research faculty whose salaries are directly charged to federal grants and contracts.”

The letter came out the same week that UMass was identified as one of 60 universities being warned of possible enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment. At UMass, the federal investigation appears to have been set in motion due to a complaint filed in February 2024 over the handling of two alleged antisemitic incidents, including one in which pro-Palestinian students allegedly cornered and harassed a Jewish reporter, that took place in October and November 2023.

The consequences could be severe, as the federal department, alongside fellow members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, has canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, contending that the school has not acted to protect Jewish students from discrimination.

Abd-El-Khalick and Malone’s letter notes that efforts to support research at UMass also involves collaboration with the university system’s office in Boston and the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. That led to a March 10 temporary restraining order restoring a terminated grant, going to researchers at the School of Education at the Amherst campus, who are part of a nationwide K-12 teacher preparation program.

The termination had included more than $6 million in funding cuts to Massachusetts-based programs designed to address the ongoing shortage of licensed teachers in school districts in Holyoke, Springfield and Boston.

UMass spokesperson Emily Gest wrote in an email that UMass is paying attention to what happens at the national level, including at the Department of Education.

“We are continuing to actively monitor and assess the situation to understand any potential impact,” Gest wrote in an email. “Despite these uncertainties, we are committed to ensuring our students are positioned for academic and personal success, and faculty continue to undertake groundbreaking research and scholarship.”

The distribution of the matching funds, to keep the research community intact, will come based upon requests made, and would provide a one-to-one match for funds withheld from faculty principal investigators and co-principal investigators, departments, schools and colleges.

ResCoE funds are to be available until Aug. 31, though this end date could be revised as additional information becomes available about the need for the temporary continuity.

Various conditions are set for receiving the money, including that:

■An active federal grant or contract is terminated or interrupted.

■It be used to pay the base salaries of postdoctoral students, research staff and research faculty, as well as stipends and tuition waivers for graduate research assistants.

■A match be provided by the principal investigator, co-principal investigator, school or college.

■An official intake form be filled out.

“Given the magnitude of our research and creative enterprise and the substantial federal support we secure to underwrite it, the ResCoE Matching Fund can only provide temporary relief,” Abd-El-Khalick and Malone wrote. “We hope our continued collective efforts across campus, the UMass system and the nation will help achieve sustained relief and bring more certainty to the current situation across higher education as soon as possible.”