The Trump administration has issued its most dangerous attack yet on scientific research.
Last Friday, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quietly released a 400-page document proposing a sweeping rule change that would give political appointees in the Trump administration unprecedented power over billions of dollars in federal grants.
Former UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp wrote an article titled “Another red alert for American science” in Science magazine, where he now serves as editor-in-chief. In it, he detailed the severe threat of this proposal:
“The sweeping new regulations proposed by OMB would subject every federal research funding decision to political review. Peer review has never been formally binding, but this proposal would dramatically expand the power of political appointees to override expert assessments of scientific merit. Agencies could end multiyear grants with no due process. They also could use the vague criteria of Trump’s “gold standard science” to identify institutions for preferential treatment. International collaboration with countries identified solely by the administration would be prohibited under the new rules, but more notably, all research that involves the expenditure of funds outside the US would require case-by-case approval. This bureaucratic hurdle would effectively prevent most if not all partnerships from moving forward.”
If this is as alarming to you as it is to us, the OMB is taking public comments through July 13th. You can submit a comment here.
We’ve covered the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education extensively over the past year and a half. It began just days into his second term, when his administration slashed funding for NIH and USAID. Then came the administration’s so-called “Compact for Excellence in Higher Education” that threatened academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
These attacks threaten not only our universities, but also our safety. With scientific funding on the chopping block, there will be fewer breakthroughs in curing disease and less preparation when we face future public health crises like COVID, Hantavirus and Ebola.
What was previously a somewhat chaotic slash-and-burn approach to research funding, the Trump administration is now seeking to systematize and formalize. The consequences could be catastrophic. That’s especially true for a top-10 research institution like Carolina, which spends more than $1 billion annually on research. In fiscal year 2025, it is estimated that Carolina research added $2.9 billion in value to North Carolina’s GDP and supported more than 24,000 in-state jobs.
We must fight back. Submit your comment on the new Trump administration rule before the July 13th deadline.
All comments submitted to date can be read here. Some are detailed feedback from professors and academics outlining how their research would be negatively affected by this new rule. Other comments are from members of the public who are fed up with the politicization of higher ed and research funding. We encourage you to read a few – it’s reassuring to know we are not alone in this fight. And there is no question that this is a fight we must wage.
Former Chancellor Thorp laid out the stakes clearly:
“The time to act is now,” he wrote. “The scientific community needs to flood OMB with responses during the public comment period, open until 13 July. Universities and associations must speak out as a united front to mobilize Congress and be ready to file lawsuits once the regulations are finalized. I was sympathetic to members of the scientific establishment who played it carefully during last year’s budget negotiations. Getting the budget deal done was crucial. But that was then. The red light is now flashing. All hands, report to stations.”