We are just over two weeks out from the beginning of Trump’s second presidency, and scientific research in the United States is in complete disarray. A series of executive orders that have been described as illegal, violating the constitution, and segregationist have sown chaos in the many scientific funding agencies across the US.
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Executive orders have covered a wide range of topics of scientific interest, from taking the US out of the Paris Agreement and World Health Organization, to the scientific nonsense in the EO on trans and non-binary people. There have been immediate restrictions on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) causing serious impacts, as well as a temporary freeze on funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), on grants that had already been awarded as well as future ones.
I just have one question for the parties responsible: what do you hope to gain for society by halting science?
The funding freeze by the NSF continued even after the Trump Administration rescinded its memo calling for a pause in all federal grant spending. The reason for this had to do with the President’s order to target any efforts to increase diversity in science or make science more accessible for people with disabilities.
“All NSF grantees must comply with these executive orders […] by ceasing all non-compliant grant and award activities,” the NSF said in a statement. “In particular, this may include […] grant activity that uses or promotes the use of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) principles and frameworks”.
Uncertainty and fear are rife
Many US scientists have contacted us to express their fear and uncertainty regarding what is to come. “I honestly do not fully know what this means when I go into work on Monday. My colleagues and I have been having variations of the conversation, ‘Will we lose our jobs in the coming months?’,” a scientist working in the field of broadening participation in STEM told IFLScience.
This week the NSF has stopped the freeze, but it has continued to review grants to find terms that are deemed noncompliant with the executive orders. These allegedly include terms like “women”, “cultural heritage”, “diverse groups”, “LGBT”, “Black”, “antiracist”, “disability”, and many more. One might conclude that if the research covers anything but cisgender, straight, able-bodied white men, it will be flagged. An appreciation of the “broader impacts” of research and adherence to a Congressional law mandating a push for equity-based research were the criteria the NSF expected applications to follow, until January 19 of this year. The organization is now punishing scientists who have followed its rules and laws voted in by Congress.
I am deeply concerned about my students’ education and safety.
IFLScience contacted the NSF, but they declined an interview. They provided this statement: “Our top priority is resuming our funding actions and services to the research community and our stakeholders. We are working expeditiously to conduct a comprehensive review of our projects, programs, and activities to be compliant with the existing executive orders.”
In scientific institutions across the country, there is a lot of uncertainty. Many students have reported they have not heard at all from their advisors, and faculty members report that there is no guidance from college and university administrations around how what is happening at the NSF is going to affect staff.
“I am deeply concerned about my students’ education and safety. I am concerned about my colleagues whose research is being forced to not look at DEI gaps. I’m concerned that even in a blue state, blue city and blue institution my identity as an openly trans masc teacher is at risk,” a higher education educator told IFLScience.
Data removed, free speech under threat
It is not just the NSF. NASA was seen removing webpages describing their reasonable accommodation policies, something that has been touted as a potential violation of the Americans with Disability Act. NASA has also stopped programs that link undergraduate students with mission scientists.
It has been reported by 404 Media that NASA workers were told to remove anything that mentioned accessibility, Indigenous people, environmental justice, or women, particularly women in leadership. This was among the first acts of the current acting administrator of NASA Janet Petro, the first woman to lead NASA.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has also been targeted. Staffers with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency reportedly entered NOAA, as they have previously entered other governmental departments. NOAA’s role in providing high-quality environmental and meteorological data that protects humanity has made the agency a target of Project 2025, the far-right manifesto written by former Trump staffers and seemingly being implemented by the current administration.
But that is precisely what the administration wants. To dismantle academia and then exert control over what is left.
NOAA data shows that the climate crisis is a scientific reality and it is linked to the human-made release of greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) in particular. This is seen as being “harmful to US prosperity.” NOAA’s webpage with the data on CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere no longer exists at time of writing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reportedly been ordered to scrub references to transgender or LGBT people from their website, a situation that has been described as unprecedented. The CDC also removed a wide variety of databases and studies that did not align with the Trump administration’s ideology, from information on vaccines to the number of infant homicides.
It’s been reported that the CDC has also called for a mass retraction of papers using terminology that goes against the official Trump ideology, including terms like “LGBT” and the phrase “pregnant people”. This order came from Sam Posner, the CDC’s associate director for science, and prompted broad condemnation from scientists, such as an op-ed in the prestigious British Medical Journal.
The situation continues to evolve, with scientists expecting lawsuits to be filed against agencies. There is also hope of Congressional intervention, but many believe that would only happen following a public outcry. A geology student told IFLScience, “I just have one question for the parties responsible: what do you hope to gain for society by halting science?”
“I do think this will lead to censorship not only in science but across academia, many people will leave the country (which I am also considering), and there will be a brain drain. But that is precisely what the administration wants. To dismantle academia and then exert control over what is left,” a postdoctoral fellow told IFLScience.
Due to this precarious and unprecedented situation, IFLScience has made the decision to keep all of our sources’ identities anonymous.
Source Link: US Science Is Under Attack
