U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 calls for unprecedented cuts to scientific agencies that, if enacted, would deal a devastating blow to American science, with media reports saying that half of the National Science Foundation's staff may be terminated as a result. Should the cuts go through, Baker Instiute Science and Technology Policy Scholar Kenneth Evans said, "I don't know how the agency functions as Congress intended it."
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced yesterday that it is awarding only 1,000 Graduate Research Fellowship Program awards — slashing the typical cohort of fellowships by half.
Cutting the GRFP to save money is “boneheaded”, says Kenny Evans, a science-policy specialist at Rice University in Houston, Texas. “GRFPs are one of the most cost-effective ways for NSF to give out money,” he says, because the outcome is a trained, promising young scientist and it’s relatively inexpensive.
As the Trump administration pulls government websites and data offline, archivists and historians expressed concern that these measures would adversely affect Americans’ ability to access and evaluate their past, and with it, their already shaky trust in facts.
“This is not a cost-cutting mechanism,” said Evans. “This slide toward secrecy and lack of transparency is an erosion of democratic norms.”
U.S. government agencies have been ordered to initiate another round of layoffs at the same time Congress is moving forward with a plan to slash their budgets — a potential blow to science. With the National Science Foundation (NSF) facing a budget reduction of more than 50%, Evans, a science and technology scholar at Rice, noted that such a drastic cut may result in the end of the NSF as we know it.
Donald Trump's return to the White House has had repercussions on research, the authority of scientific discourse and even the place of reason in public debate.
As Trump revealed the names of his Administration, Evans commented, “This does not bode well for the future of American science ... But at least, when it comes to budgets, I have hope that Congress can keep Trump in check.”