Johns Hopkins University said it will lay off around 2,000 employees due to billions of dollars in federal research grants being cut. 

In February, President Donald Trump’s administration announced widespread cuts to National Institutes of Health grants for research institutions. A temporary court order delayed the cuts, but many universities have already paused many research projects.

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Johns Hopkins, one of the premier research universities in the country, said it will lay off 1,975 people in 44 countries, marking the largest job cut in university history. It will also eliminate 247 jobs in the United States, mostly in Baltimore, where the university’s main campus is located.

“This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the school said in a statement.

“Johns Hopkins is immensely proud of the work done by our colleagues in Jhpiego, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the School of Medicine to care for mothers and infants, fight disease, provide clean drinking water, and advance countless other critical, life-saving efforts around the world,” the statement continued.

USAID funding has been effectively halted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency as the Trump administration tries to dismantle the entire agency.

One of the larger grants cut at the university was called SMART4TB, a $200 million investment to research how to combat the spread of deadly tuberculosis, according to the Washington Post. The five-year grant had $175 million left to spend and was at the stage where it was setting up diagnostic trials and hiring staff around the world.

“We were providing state-of-the-art diagnostic testing plus experimental tests that could help save thousands of lives. That’s now turned off,” Richard Chaisson, the program lead, told the outlet. 

Workers based in the U.S. have at least 60 days before the layoffs take effect. The university said it furloughed about 100 additional workers.

The layoffs could also affect the Maryland economy, which relies on the university’s output as one of the state’s largest employers. The university recently committed $360 million to local construction businesses and spent more than $1 billion with local businesses, according to a university spokesperson.

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Carter Elliott, a spokesman for Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD), called the consequences of the cuts to the university “immediate and profound.”

“It is difficult to overstate the significance of Johns Hopkins University as a cornerstone of Maryland’s economy,” Elliott said in a statement. “Students, faculty, and researchers at Johns Hopkins will bear the direct burden of these reductions, but the ripple effects will extend far beyond campus.”