I spoke last week with University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham, who is wielding her position to push back against the erosion of scientific independence. Q: What's the university's federal research portfolio, and what's at risk economically? A: We have close to $660 million in federal research [annually]. You wouldn't want a cancer treatment to be delayed because it got a political review. What you want to do is fund the team that is most likely to advance the best science — no matter what state it's in.