While a federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze, some schools had already started to prepare. The University of Chicago cautioned faculty about purchasing equipment, starting new experiments or embarking on travel related to their grants. And Harvard University, which received almost $700 million in federal research dollars last academic year and has been under federal scrutiny, said the memo requires a “pause on a subset of federally funded research activities implicated in an evolving set of executive orders,” according to a letter from President Alan Garber.

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US universities are awarded billions of dollars each year for a bevy of items including scientific research and tuition assistance. While the proposed pause doesn’t apply to the disbursement of federal loans and Pell Grants to pay for college, it could impact how universities do business. The schools receive research money from agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Agriculture.

“We are extremely concerned about the impact of this action on our country’s ability to maintain its scientific and technological lead against competitors and potential adversaries,” said Barbara Snyder, president of the Association of American Universities, which represents top research universities.

The University of Michigan and Ohio State University have posted the executive orders on their websites along with some guidance as school officials try to determine next steps. Leadership at Yale University advised faculty, staff and students to continue federally-funded work except for cases where the university has received specific stop-work orders.

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“The implementation of these changes will depend on interpretation by federal agencies and courts, so we do not have clear answers today on how this and other government actions will affect our university,” Yale President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel, wrote Tuesday. “We should all be mindful of the impact of university spending in light of these uncertainties.”

The University of Texas at Austin said they weren’t pausing any research.

“We do not believe current guidance requires us to pause federally funded research activities unless the sponsoring agency orders a stoppage on a specific project,” Dan Jaffe, vice president for research at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a statement.

Some agencies have already taken actions to stop grant-review panels, bodies that determine which institutions receive money to study various topics.

The National Science Foundation took that step on Monday, said Sarah Spreitzer, who works on government relations for the American Council on Education, a trade group that represents 1,600 public and private colleges and universities. Researchers who were scheduled to participate in a grant review panel were told it wasn’t happening, she said.

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That decision will impact grants already undergoing review, new grant announcements and the disbursements of funding, Spreitzer said. It doesn’t appear that the order is trying to claw back federal funds. The Trump executive orders may also affect conferences, training and workshops, according to a statement on the National Science Foundation’s website.

“It is difficult to understand how large the impact will be, not just on institutions of higher education but across the United States and the American people,” Spreitzer said.