Trump Proposes Deep Research Cuts, New Icebreaker for NSF

The president’s budget request, released last week, recommends major cuts to research funding at the National Science Foundation across all its directorates. Accordingly, the administration would expect a significant reduction in the number of awards given in fiscal year 2027 and in the number of people directly involved in NSF activities. At the same time, the request proposes several major construction projects and a new office focused on “metascience” initiatives at the agency.

The request proposes $4 billion for NSF, a 54% cut from the fiscal year 2026 enacted level. The amount echoes last year’s proposal of $3.9 billion, which Congress soundly rejected, funding the agency at $8.75 billion. The request also recommends an additional $900 million for a new research icebreaker, but those funds are separate from the rest of the agency’s budget.

NSF would plan to fund just 2,900 competitive awards in fiscal year 2027, compared to 7,400 in fiscal year 2025, according to the request. (Competitive awards include research grants as well as cooperative agreements, fellowships, and other grants.)

For research grants, NSF would award 2,100 in fiscal year 2027, compared to 5,800 in fiscal year 2025. However, the agency would increase the size of each award by 14%, on average. NSF also estimates that the number of people directly involved in NSF programs and activities, including researchers and K-12 students and teachers, would fall by 69%.

Each research directorate would receive deep cuts under the request, including a 75% cut to the Engineering Directorate, a 72% cut to Biological Sciences, a 67% cut to Mathematical and Physical Sciences, a 63% cut to Computer and Information Science and Engineering, and a 43% cut to Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships. (Directorate-level spending totals for fiscal year 2026 are not yet available, so the request compares to the figures released for 2025.)

The request proposes multiple reorganizations within the Research and Related Activities account, including moving the Office of Polar Programs out of the Geosciences Directorate. OPP would be cut by 13%, down to $497 million, while the remainder of the Geosciences Directorate would be cut by 58%, to $426 million.

The request would eliminate the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate, though it would preserve the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics as a separate program and cut its budget by 41%. The request says continuing grants that “align with administration priorities, such as in behavioral and cognitive science,” would be transferred to other parts of the agency, as would all impacted employees.

The proposal again seeks to fold the account that funds the STEM Education Directorate into the Research and Related Activities account, which Congress rejected in the final fiscal year 2026 funding law. The request would fund STEM Education at $428 million, a 54% cut from 2026.

The request proposes deep cuts to several fellowship and scholarship programs within STEM Education, including a 43% cut to the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which already saw a steep drop in the number of fellowships awarded last year. The request notes that NSF will seek co-funding from industry stakeholders in exchange for having students perform sponsored research apprenticeships. In contrast, the request proposes level funding for the EPSCoR Graduate Fellowship Program. EPSCoR provides funds to institutions in U.S. states and territories that have historically struggled to secure NSF grants.

Even AI and quantum information science, which NSF designated in fiscal year 2026 as “Frontier Initiatives” that represent “the highest strategic importance to the nation,” would see cuts of 32% and 37%, respectively. The additional “innovation focal points” — advanced manufacturing and materials and biotechnology — would also receive cuts of 70% and 40%, respectively.

The request also proposes cutting the Office of International Science and Engineering by 94% and the Office of Research Security Strategy and Policy by 26%.

New icebreaker and major construction projects

The request proposes $900 million beyond the $4 billion topline figure to support the development of a new Antarctic research vessel for NSF. The agency terminated its lease on the RV Nathaniel B. Palmer icebreaker last year.

For the rest of the major construction projects, the request proposes a 31% cut. It recommends $81.45 million for the Leadership-Class Computing Facility in Texas, $60 million for Antarctic infrastructure upgrades, and $30 million for mid-scale infrastructure projects.

The request notes that NSF selected just one of the two Extremely Large Telescopes, the Giant Magellan Telescope, to move forward to the final design stage, as the administration requested last year. The GMT will be completed without further funds from NSF, the request says. However, Congress directed the agency to also advance the Thirty Meter Telescope in its explanatory report for the fiscal year 2026 funding bill. A report from December 2024, commissioned by NSF and written by external experts, said pursuing either telescope could dominate the agency’s limited facilities budget and damage other research areas absent a significant and sustained budget increase from Congress.

The request proposes $18 million to support the design of two “potential” construction projects. The Summit Modernization and Recapitalization project would rebuild the Summit research station in Antarctica to be “safer, more efficient, and more flexible,” the request says. The Next Generation Very Large Array project, a radio telescope array, would replace the Very Large Array and the Very Long Baseline Array.

New initiatives

The request proposes $100 million for a joint initiative on energy-water security between NSF and the Department of Energy. DOE would provide an additional $75 million. The initiative would work to “reduce vulnerabilities where water-related issues threaten reliable energy production.”

The request also proposes funding a new office dedicated to “metascience,” which refers to the scientific study of scientific research. This office would explore novel methods for improving the effectiveness of the U.S. R&D enterprise and collaborative research teams, including non-traditional R&D funding mechanisms. The request raises “flexible fast grants alongside longer-duration grants” and “golden tickets,” which would allow a grant reviewer to fund an application regardless of objections from the other reviewers, as examples of ideas the office would pursue.