What cutting science funding could cost us

What you probably already know: Federal funding for scientific research is drying up amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on government spending and programs it deems unlawful. Mass layoffs have hit the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, the country’s decades-old, war-forged reputation as a leader in scientific advancement might be at stake.

Why? Biomedical research groups stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in grants issued through the National Institutes of Health as the agency strives to adhere to new “priorities” and the Trump administration relentlessly purges the government of “woke” initiatives. In the case of recently terminated federal grants for HIV research, the NIH told CNN the move was “in accordance with the Presidential Memo ‘Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending.” Meanwhile, dozens of U.S. colleges whose federal funding topped $33 billion during the 2022-2023 school year are being investigated over programs the White House claims are illegally focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, or for allegedly failing to curb antisemitism.

What it means: Critics argue that cuts to research spending will hinder scientific progress by delaying and canceling thousands of active projects seeking to better understand and treat life-threatening diseases. The NIH’s National Cancer Institute is the world’s largest funder of cancer research, helping reduce the cancer death rate in the U.S. by 33% from 1991 to 2021. As for the economy, experts warn that Trump’s policies could harm U.S. competitiveness in emerging fields like AI, leading to long-term negative effects on Americans, including reduced wealth, health, and productivity. Economists say that funding scientific research is one of the best ways to spend taxpayer money, with every dollar invested returning about $5 in economic gains, not to mention other benefits like longer lifespans.

What happens now? A federal judge temporarily blocked the cuts to the NIH’s “indirect” expenses in February and issued a preliminary injunction earlier this month to extend the pause. For now, we can expect fewer international students studying in the U.S. as more visas are revoked and federal agents detain academics involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. European countries are also recruiting American scientists. Yasmine Belkaid, who recently moved to France after spending 30 years in the U.S. where she led the NIH’s Center for Human Immunology, told The New York Times, “We could lose a generation of science, a generation of scientists, something that we cannot recover from.”