“The shutdown basically just compounded uncertainty to what's already going on for the lives of researchers and people that rely on both work in the federal government and rely on the federal government to do their science,” Evans said, noting that the resolution to continue funding the government only lasts through January.
Evans and other science advocates discuss the next step for researchers following the end of a historic government shutdown.
Evans notes while every government shutdown harms scientific research, the 2025 shutdown in the U.S. is especially damaging because it comes amid broader efforts to politicize science, making the disruption far more serious than just a temporary funding lapse.
Evans and other experts explore the interdependence of the U.S. and China in the global tech and raw materials economy—specifically focusing on rare earth elements and advanced computer chips, highlighting each nation's strategic leverage over the other.
Researchers were hopeful when President Donald Trump appointed Michael Kratsios as chief science adviser: though Kratsios lacks a background in science, he had previously shown support for the scientific community. Now, many scientists and scholars are dismayed, as they feel Kratsios has fallen woefully short of defending science from the Trump administration's funding and workforce cuts.
“We were really hopeful that Kratsios would defend science, but it doesn’t look like he is going to do that,” said Evans, a science-policy researcher at Rice University. “Tearing everything down doesn’t seem like a way forward.”