Science groups push back against proposed budget cuts

Science advocacy groups are urging Congress to reject President Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to research funding in fiscal year 2027.

The Association of American Universities condemned the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and research offices at the Department of Energy in a press release, highlighting reports that China’s investments in scientific research and development “are now outpacing our own.”

The Trump administration’s proposal to cut NSF’s budget by 54% and eliminate the agency’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate has drawn criticism from groups such as the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

The administration’s proposal to cut NASA Science by nearly 50% has also raised alarm, with Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), the co-chairs of the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus, releasing a joint statement that such cuts would “create enormous chaos and uncertainty for critical missions, the scientific workforce, and long-term research planning.” Last month, Chu and Bacon co-authored a letter, signed by more than 100 House Representatives, requesting $9 billion for NASA Science in the upcoming budget. A similar letter, led by the American Astronomical Society and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), is circulating among senators. The request seeks $3.9 billion for NASA Science. (AAS is an AIP Member Society.)

While some university groups, such as the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, applauded the Trump administration’s proposal to increase funding for the Pell Grant program, which helps undergraduate students from low-income families pay for their education, they expressed alarm over wider cuts to student aid, institutional support, and research funding. The American Physical Society, alongside other scientific organizations, has launched a campaign urging people to write to their representatives in support of increased science funding. The Planetary Society has also launched a letter-writing campaign and is planning a day of action on April 20. (APS is an AIP Member Society.)

Congress to hold budget hearings

Congressional committees will hold multiple budget-related hearings this week. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, will appear before the House Budget Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Budget Committee on Thursday to discuss President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2027. The House Appropriations Committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the Department of Energy’s budget proposal with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and on Thursday to discuss the Department of Health and Human Services’ budget proposal with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS will be a focus of several other committees this week: RFK is slated to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee the morning before his budget hearing, and the House Education and Workforce Committee will meet on Friday to discuss policies and priorities at HHS.

Also this week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a rescheduled markup of the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act, and the House Science Committee will discuss the state of scientific publishing. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing for Preston Wells Griffith, a former DOE official who is now Trump’s pick to represent the U.S. at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The House Committee on the CCP will hold a hearing on “China’s Campaign to Steal America’s AI Edge.”

Trump administration skips deadline to appeal NIH indirect cost ruling

The deadline for the Trump administration to appeal a court decision on indirect costs at the National Institutes of Health passed last week, leaving in place a ruling blocking the 15% cap on such costs that the White House sought to implement last year for university grantees of several agencies. NIH’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 says that the agency “will continue the policy to cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent.” FYI has reached out to NIH for comment on whether that statement is still accurate.

Indirect costs are the portion of a grant that covers expenses such as equipment and facilities maintenance, IT services, and administrative support, often expressed as a percentage of direct research costs. The administration attempted to instate 15% caps at NIH, the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, which were each blocked in court. Typical cost reimbursements are between 30% and 70%. DOE, NSF, and DOD withdrew their own cap policies following the litigation, and appropriations laws blocked changes to the current indirect costs system in fiscal year 2026.

A group of higher education associations proposed the Financial Accountability in Research (FAIR) model last year as an alternative indirect costs model, and a spokesperson said the group will work with Congress to implement the model as part of the fiscal year 2027 appropriations process.

NSF to study compensation for early-career researchers

The National Science Foundation agreed to establish a timeline for a study on the effectiveness of current funding mechanisms for federally funded graduate researchers and postdoctoral scholars, as recommended by the Government Accountability Office. The study, which Congress directed NSF to complete by August 2023, would also recommend the appropriate balance between fellowships, traineeships, and other funding models. NSF also agreed to analyze gaps in the data needed to “fully assess” the adequacy of compensation for these researchers. Centralized data on graduate researcher compensation currently does not exist, the GAO report found. The report also analyzed compensation, cost of living, funding stability, and other factors that influence these researchers’ decisions to pursue and remain in federally funded research programs. It noted that some agency efforts to assess barriers to recruitment and retention related to organizational climate were ended in 2025 because they did not align with executive branch priorities.

Also on our radar

• NSF announced 2,500 GRFP awards today, higher than the average of around 2,000 awards each year since 2010. Last year saw a sharp drop in awards to about 1,500.
• Most NOAA grants are currently frozen as OMB withholds funding, according to a report from Boulder Reporting Lab last week.
• ARPA–E announced $135 million in funding for fusion energy technologies. The agency’s total budget is $350 million for fiscal year 2026, and the White House has proposed cutting it by 43% in fiscal year 2027 to eliminate funding for “technologies favored by the globalist climate agenda.”
• Astronauts on the Artemis II mission returned safely last Friday after traveling a record distance from Earth to view the far side of the Moon.
• House CCP Committee Chair John Moolenaar (R-MI) expressed support for DOD’s research security policy, updated last month, which prohibits collaboration on fundamental research with entities on an expanded set of prohibited entity lists.
• Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna (CA) and Grace Meng (NY) expressed their support for NSF’s SECURE program for research security in a letter in early April.
• DOE awarded around $50 million for ten university-led projects on nuclear safety training and education.
• A bill to reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs will become law this week unless vetoed by the president.

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All events are Eastern Time unless otherwise noted. Listings do not imply endorsement. Events beyond this week are listed on our website.

Monday, April 13

Harvard: Managing the challenges of North Korean nuclear/missile threats
1:30 - 3:00 pm

Tuesday, April 14

Hoover Institution: Bio Leadership Summit

CSPO: Rethinking science policy speaker series: Genetic data after bankruptcy, policy lessons from 23andMe
9:00 - 10:30 am

Senate: Business meeting to consider the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act and other bills
10:00 am, Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

AMS: Get to know NOAA’s flood and water resources
2:00 pm

NSF SECURE Center: Department of War risk matrix
3:00 pm

Wednesday, April 15

NSTA: National Science Teaching Association national conference (continues through Saturday)

House: The state of scientific publishing: Assessing trends, emerging issues, and policy considerations
10:00 am, Science Committee

Harvard: Current challenges for global nuclear governance
10:00 - 11:30 am

House: The president’s FY27 budget request
10:15 am, Budget Committee

House: Building an AI-ready America: Understanding AI’s economic impact on workers and employers
10:15 am, Education and Workforce Committee

FLC: Expand your existing agreements into sponsored research pipelines
12:00 - 1:00 pm

House: Department of Energy budget hearing
2:00 pm, Appropriations Committee

House: Computing power and competition: Examining the semiconductor ecosystem
2:00 pm, Energy and Commerce Committee

Senate: A review of FY27 budget requests for the Congressional Budget Office, Government Publishing Office, and the Government Accountability Office
3:00 pm, Appropriations Committee

Harvard: Nuclear proliferation and American security: The inaugural Carnesale Convenings
6:00 - 7:15 pm

Thursday, April 16

National Academies: A Research Strategy for Seabed Critical Mineral Resources Committee, meeting two (continues Friday)

National Academies: Mathematical Sciences Education Board, meeting three (continues Friday)

Johns Hopkins: SAIS Emerging Tech Symposium
8:00 am - 7:30 pm

House: Hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
9:00 am, Ways and Means Committee

Senate: The president’s FY27 budget request
10:00 am, Budget Committee

Senate: Nomination hearing for Preston Wells Griffith to be representative of the US to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and others
10:30 am, Foreign Relations Committee

House: China’s campaign to steal America’s AI edge
11:00 am, CCP Committee

AEI: How higher education’s ideological tilt matters for teaching and research
2:00 - 3:00 pm

House: Department of Health and Human Services budget hearing
2:00 pm, Appropriations Committee

National Academies: Polar Research Board spring meeting 2026
2:30 - 3:50 pm

American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Award ceremony
6:00 - 7:15 pm

Friday, April 17

House: Examining the policies and priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services
9:00 am, Education and Workforce Committee

National Academies: Open questions in laboratory animal science: The next 25 years
12:00 - 1:00 pm

AIP: Lyne Starling Trimble Public Event Series: The quiet genius of George Carruthers with David DeVorkin
5:45 pm

Monday, April 20

NOIRLab: Empowering science in the data-rich era of astronomy (continues through Friday)

CLEAN: Nuclear in New Mexico: Fueling the U.S. nuclear renaissance
8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Harvard: France’s changing nuclear posture, doctrine, and force structure: Implications for European security
1:30 - 3:00 pm

National Academies: Committee on Solar and Space Physics discussion with NASA Heliophysics Division
3:00 - 4:00 pm

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Deadlines indicated in parentheses. Newly added opportunities are marked with a diamond.

Job Openings

◆FAS: Senior manager, climate tech and innovation (ongoing)
◆Senate: Legislative assistant, Republican member of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee (ongoing)
APLU: Assistant vice president for governmental affairs (ongoing)
APS: Chief marketing and communications officer (ongoing)
AIP: Director of science policy news (ongoing)
Science Philanthropy Alliance: Civic science fellow (ongoing)
Foundation for American Innovation: Research fellow, weather and atmospheric interventions (ongoing)
DOE: Fermi site office manager (April 15)
AAS: John N. Bahcall Public Policy Fellowship (April 15)
DOE: Foreign affairs specialist, NNSA (April 17)
USGS: National Geospatial Technical Operations Center section chiefs, hydrography and cartographic applied research (April 17)
Senate: Committee legislative director, Democratic ranking member, Commerce Committee (April 17)
Senate: Research assistant, Democratic ranking member, Commerce Committee (April 17)
DOE: Attorney-adviser, Office of Energy Dominance Financing (April 30)
AAS: Editor in Chief (May 11)
DOE: Associate director for finance and budget officer, ARPA–E (May 18)
ANS: Congressional science and engineering fellowship (June 5)

Solicitations

House Appropriations Committee: Call to submit written testimony on HHS budget (April 16)
Census Bureau: RFC on Survey of State Government Research and Development (May 1)
ANS: Nominations for 40 Under 40, Nuclear News (May 1)
NRC: RFC on proposed rule on NRC reviews of reactor designs previously authorized by DOE or DOD (May 4)
NSF: RFC on renewal of the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (May 8)
NSF: RFC on Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (May 8)
House Appropriations Committee: Call to submit written testimony on FY27 science budget (May 8)
NSF: RFC on Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) program (May 8)
◆FCC: RFC on Spectrum Abundance for Weird Space Stuff proposed rule (May 11)
NOAA: Solicitation of nominations for membership on the Ocean Research Advisory Panel (May 14)
NIST: RFC on CHIPS Workforce Solution participant data collection (May 18)
NASA: RFC on NASA Front Door (May 19)
NIH: RFC on NIH-wide strategic plan for fiscal years 2027-2031 (May 26)
NRC: RFC on regulation of byproduct material associated with fusion machines (May 27)

Know of an opportunity for scientists to engage in science policy? Email us at fyi@aip.org.

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Do you have a story to tell about how science policy is impacting you?

AIP’s research team is gathering first-hand accounts from scientists, engineers, students, and staff whose careers have been affected by policy and funding changes over the past year. Volunteers can submit their stories via this online form. Participants’ stories will be added to the Niels Bohr Library & Archives digital repository as searchable, citable records — with options for anonymity and a five-year embargo period. Read more about the initiative here.

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News and views currently in circulation. Links do not imply endorsement.

Congress

Issues in Science and Technology: A vision for America’s next era in space (perspective by Brian Babin)
SpaceNews: Key Senate appropriator rejects proposed NASA budget cuts
Politico: Trump is still trying to DOGE the NIH. Republicans are tired
Roll Call: House appropriators delay Defense markup plans amid uncertainty

Science, Society, and the Economy

Nature: Human scientists trounce the best AI agents on complex tasks
Research Policy: AI in science: When and where it makes a difference (journal article by Stefano Bianchini et al.)
Research Professional: AI use in science linked to more novelty and impact, study finds
NIST: How a NISTer watches ‘Project Hail Mary’ (perspective by Robin Materese and Ben Stein)

Education and Workforce

Chemical & Engineering News: Women are twice as likely as men to leave academia after having a child
Nature: Huge analysis of 320,000 careers suggests that productive researchers stay that way
Issues in Science and Technology: Building pluralistic intelligence into the American research university (perspective by Michael Crow et al.)
Chronicle of Higher Education: To prevent AI from taking graduates’ jobs, comp-sci professors try ... more AI

Research Management

Nature: Should academic misconduct be catalogued? Proposed US database sparks debate
GAO: Technology transfer: Funding recipients keep most federally funded inventions, but some cited reporting challenges (report)
Retraction Watch: A journal named a sleuth in a correction. The sleuth says that was ‘ethical editorial malpractice’
Retraction Watch: Canadian panel seeks to add more teeth to research oversight

Labs and Facilities

American Nuclear Society: New X-ray imaging for ITER-supporting tokamaks
Idaho National Lab: Idaho National Laboratory nuclear science trailer delivers hands-on nuclear science experience to Wyoming
Lawrence Livermore National Lab: LLNL delivers advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Titan

Computing and Communications

Science: Department of Energy’s AI push squeezes funding for research grants
NSF: AI-powered labs accelerating scientific discovery (audio interview with Milad Abolhasani)
Business Insider: Tech billionaires want to put data centers in space. The math could get ugly fast
Bloomberg: UAE’s AI leader plans big US expansion, looking past Iran war

Space

Scientific American: White House budget puts 54 NASA science missions on the chopping block
NPR: Artemis II mission inspires the next generation of space scientists
New York Times: NASA flew by the Moon, but behind the scenes, its science is a chaotic mess (perspective by Kate Marvel)
Nature: Behind the scenes with Artemis II’s scientists during the historic Moon fly-by
Scientific American: The Artemis II mission worked—but should we really keep returning to the Moon? (audio)
Scientific American: How China could still win the new Moon race
Science: Mars mission aims for nuclear propulsion—on a tight deadline

Energy

Federation of American Scientists: DOE’s FY27 budget request: The good, the bad, and the ugly
HPCwire: ‘Massively more energy’ needed to unleash AI, Energy Secretary Wright says
U.S. Department of Energy: Secretary Wright delivers remarks at ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit (video)
AAU: ARPA-E: Critical for US energy innovation leadership (report)
American Nuclear Society: NRC proposed rule for licensing reactors authorized by DOE, DOD
American Nuclear Society: GAIN vouchers go to Constellation, Nano Nuclear, and NuCube
E&E News: A critical moment for the nuclear safety policeman
AP: A 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock will soon house the world’s first permanent nuclear waste site

Defense

Breaking Defense: Space Force programs supporting Golden Dome see big FY27 budget boost
SpaceNews: Space Force taps 14 firms for $1.8 billion GEO surveillance program
Breaking Defense: How the Army could spend nearly $19 billion in RDT&E funding
Politico: Anthropic loses appeals court bid to pause supply chain risk label
Inside Defense: Military and intelligence officials highlight support for open-weight AI models
Scientific American: Why bombing Iran’s nuclear power plant could cause an environmental disaster

Biomedical

AAU: Pfizer CEO warns China is fast catching up in biotech innovation
New York Times: New charter allows RFK Jr. to reclaim vaccine policy despite court ruling
Wired: No one knows where US vaccine policy goes next
Retraction Watch: Scientist who alleged COVID cover-up circulated a faked NIH email, agency says
DOE: DOE’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing announces conditional commitment for a domestic medical isotope manufacturing facility
Stat: The Pasteur Institute of Iran illustrates important truths about global public health (perspective by Chirantan Chatterjee and Guy Vernet)

International Affairs

University World News: Attacks on leading universities in Iran hit science and research
Iran International: War follows us Iranian scientists far from home (perspective by Ebrahim Karimi)
AP: Iran war halts Qatar helium output, threatening global tech supply chains
New York Times: Truce leaves questions over fate of Iran’s enriched uranium
Politico: The Middle East war depleted US weapons. Rebuilding will require China’s cooperation
Science|Business: Hungary flouts EU science sanctions on Russia
Science|Business: European universities call for stronger research cooperation
American Nuclear Society: Kenya, Rwanda eye nuclear reactors