Scientific Societies Protest Trump’s Executive Order
▼ Summary
– The Trump administration issued an executive order placing political control over federal grant funding, including research grants.
– A coalition of over 50 scientific organizations is urging Congress to protect the independent, merit-based peer-review system.
– The order requires a political appointee to approve all new funding opportunities and individual grants, which must advance the President’s priorities.
– Agencies are instructed to formalize the ability to cancel existing grants if they no longer align with agency priorities.
– This system would end the 70-year tradition of US scientific leadership by making research subject to political approval and potential cancellation.
A significant coalition of more than fifty scientific and medical organizations has voiced strong opposition to a recent executive order from the Trump administration, which places new political controls over federal research grant funding. The group has formally urged Congress to intervene, arguing that the order threatens the integrity of the independent, peer-review system that has long been the foundation of American scientific advancement. This system traditionally awards grants based on scientific merit rather than political alignment.
Under the new directive, the announcement of any federal funding opportunity must first undergo review by the agency head or a designated political appointee. This effectively grants a non-expert official the final authority to decide which scientific fields receive support. Furthermore, every individual grant must receive clearance from a political appointee and, where applicable, must be shown to actively advance the President’s policy priorities.
The executive order also mandates that agencies establish a formal process allowing them to terminate previously awarded grants at any point if the research is deemed to no longer align with agency priorities. As a mechanism to enforce these sweeping changes, a temporary freeze has been placed on the creation of any new funding programs until the necessary bureaucratic framework is fully implemented.
Collectively, these provisions introduce a scenario where all federally supported scientific research could be subject to approval by officials who may lack relevant expertise. More alarmingly, ongoing projects could be abruptly canceled should political objectives shift. Many in the scientific community view this as a direct challenge to the merit-based framework that has underpinned U.S. scientific leadership for nearly seven decades, raising profound concerns about the future of objective inquiry and discovery.
(Source: Ars Technica)
