The head counts and dollar amounts of U.S. government spending cuts attract most of the notoriety, but another consequence is a dramatic reduction or elimination of government research capabilities.
Mass layoffs at many of the agencies impacted specifically targeted research spending. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research office’s funding has been reduced by 75 per cent. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) cut its research budget, ending hundreds of research grants.
In sciences, engineering and medicine, leaders are warning of the damage caused by reduced and delayed funding that has historically supported research inside the government and in universities.
In reaction to what the New York Times called an administration’s “War on Science”, more than 1,900 U.S. scientists warned that the funding cuts were “forcing institutions to pause research (including studies of new disease treatments), dismiss faculty, and stop enrolling graduate students,” in a public letter from the members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
“We see real danger in this moment. We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united as researchers in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a clear warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated,” the letter said.
Scientists at multiple U.S. agencies have reported restrictions on external communications with foreign colleagues, and efforts to suppress dissent.
Scientific American noted that U.S. researchers are worried about funding, and job security, as the government froze billions in funding and cut support for institutional science. Researchers thought some topics (climate, for example) were too risky to study, and warned that the U.S. risked losing its status as a global leader in science.
Internationally, the withdrawal from the World Health Organization and Paris Climate Agreement will reduce international efforts on those topics. A more general withdrawal from global scientific collaboration would harm the world’s research ‘ecosystem’.
A decline in research spending would affect Canada both generally and specifically, because U.S. funding does reach Canadian researchers. Many joint research collaborations operate among Canadian and U.S. researchers, notably in climate and environmental science. The NIH provided $57.3 million to research involving Canadians last year.
The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) noted that researchers working on projects funded by U.S. federal agencies were sent a lengthy questionnaire to confirm that their research did not include climate or environmental justice, DEI, did not ascribe to gender ideology, and also noted prohibited partnerships with “communist, socialist or totalitarian parties.”
A CAUT release urged that Canada’s federal government push back against “this blatant attempt to interfere in academic research and trample upon academic freedom” and asked Ottawa to ensure that research threatened by the U.S. be properly funded and supported.