Trump is blowing up American science

The National Science Foundation is one of the nation’s premier agencies to advance non-biomedical research (the NIH has the biomedical research portfolio). Full disclosure: I was principle investigator on three NSF grants in my career and served on six NSF review panels that made grant funding recommendations.

Now, the Trump administration wants to tear that down:

“One of the United States’ leading funders of science and engineering research is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months, a top National Science Foundation official said Tuesday.”

*snip*

“But if the White House and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency are serious about slashing NSF, the result would be catastrophic, the same program manager warned. Cutting the $10 billion grantmaking agency in half would “gut the intellectual center of U.S. leadership in science and technology,” the official said.

 

“It’s unclear how the threatened reduction in force at NSF would comply with union agreements the agency has with the American Federation of Government Employees. AFGE didn’t respond to requests for comment.”

It may be relevant that the NSF funds a lot of climate research. Also too, just slashing the NSF budget on that scale would free up money for tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations. Meanwhile, we’ll just shrink our way to excellence, right?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/science-funding-agency-layoffs-threat-00202426#:~:text=National%20Science%20Foundation%20staff%20heard%20the%20plans%20at%20a%20meeting%20Tuesday.&text=One%20of%20the%20United%20States,Science%20Foundation%20official%20said%20Tuesday.

 

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