Australian universities are crying foul after the Trump administration asks questions that put $386 million in research grants in jeopardy. The bone of contention was a questionnaire sent to Australian grant recipients asking if the institution had "ties to communist or socialist parties, receive funding from China and it only recognises male and female sexes." 

The grants were frozen in January, shortly after President Trump was inaugurated, but were unfrozen at some time thereafter. This new round of questions is the second time the universities were queried, but this time, it has their attention.

Seven days after the Trump administration assumed office, one of Australia's Group of Eight universities was notified that US funding for a project had been paused.

"This is really concerning and the thin end of the wedge in terms of where it potentially could go," Group of Eight CEO Vicki Thomson said.

The administration has already sent questionnaires to Australian researchers asking 36 questions on a wide range of topics including drugs, US government transgender policies, and Christianity.

It also asks them to confirm "your organization has not received ANY funding from the PRC (People's Republic of China) … Russia, Cuba, or Iran".

"The nature of the questionnaire was quite astounding," Ms Thomson said.

"If this was any other country, it verges on foreign interference. It's just remarkable."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on criticisms of the questionnaire.

If you are getting money from a foreign government, you sort of lose the right to complain about "foreign interference" when that government clarifies its terms and conditions.

Australia spends about $800 million per year on university-based research; the US contribution is about a third of the total spent on academic research.

The affected universities are demanding an "emergency meeting" with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. 

Australian Academy of Science chief executive Anna-Maria Arabia told the Australian Financial Review the federal government had to be quicker to respond to the cuts rather than choosing to "wait and see".

"It is incumbent on the prime minister to call an emergency meeting of the National Science and Technology Council, which he chairs, compelling all ministers to the table to share intel and comprehensively assess the extent of Australia’s exposure to a reduction in US R&D investment across portfolios,” Ms Arabia said.

"The consequences of inaction are profound with consequences for every Australian’s way of life,” she said.

"We don’t know the full extent of the pain US measures will inflict on Australia, but we do know it’s coming, and we have a chance to put in place strategies that will allow Australia to capture opportunities whilst mitigating the worst of the damage.”

For the life of me, I really don't understand why it is in our interests to fund research at foreign universities using federal funds. Research funding is a zero-sum affair. Doling out $386 million to Australian universities means that money will not be available for funding opportunities for American scientists or world-class scientists living in other countries who want to come to America. We should've learned the folly of pushing our research dollars into foreign universities where we can't control what goes on with our Wuhan Institute of Virology tragedy.