The president’s fiscal year 2027 budget request, released Friday, asks for $41 billion for the NIH and eliminates the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, the Fogarty International Center, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The 2027 budget also proposes consolidating two institutes focused on research on drug and alcohol abuse into a new entity called the National Institute of Substance Use and Addiction Research, as well as relocating the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The White House proposal also asks Congress to slash the budget for the Advanced Research Projects (ARPA-H), which funds cutting-edge science, from its current $1.5 billion to $945 million.
How are we letting this happen? 
GRFP decisions are out for those that were waiting on this! Good luck to all!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2026/04/25/national-science-board-members-dismissed/
Trump ousts National Science Board members
Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.
The board’s members are scientists and engineers from universities and industry and are appointed by the president, but they serve six-year terms, ensuring overlap between different administrations. There are typically 25 members, but some slots are empty — including the NSF director.
He [Keivan Stassun, a physicist at Vanderbilt and bard member] noted that without a director over the last year, the board has played a major role in advising Congress of the agency’s role in the nation’s investment in science. In the president’s budget request last year, there was a proposed 55 percent cut to NSF’s budget. Congress rejected those cuts.
The president’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 also proposes a deep cut to NSF, and Stassun questioned whether the timing of the cuts were connected to the work the board does in advising Congress of the agency’s importance, even as the president has aimed to cut it.
“Let’s eat all the seed corn, who cares what happens in a couple years, live it up in the now!”
I’m so furious about all of this, and the long term damage that is unfolding.
Should be free link
Science research is not robust in Canada unfortunately. Most R&D is done at universities rather than by the private sector and those roles are not plentiful and tend not to pay overly well. We have far fewer national government labs and significantly lower levels of science funding vs the US even given the recent cuts by the Trump administration. Where the US shines is with opportunities within private industry and that aspect is particularly anemic in Canada. I am hopeful that the new initiatives being discussed as a response to the tariff situation and meeting our NATO obligations will be the catalyst for new opportunities for students hoping for science research focused careers, but I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for your reply! My D did end up choosing UBC, so we will just see how it goes. She is thrilled about living in Vancouver and our friends in academia thought she would receive a good education there in any case.
She will certainly get a fantastic education. I presume that graduate school will be in her future so she will need to hustle to get the requisite research experience she’ll need to be a competitive applicant. Fortunately that means she’s looking 6-12 years down the road before she needs to worry about her employment prospects and who knows what the science career landscape will look like at that point.
I’m in the same boat as a parent as my oldest is currently pursuing a Physics PhD. In their particular case that will result in transferable skills though probably to industries they really would prefer not to work in but may have no choice.
Time will tell.
Congrats to your daughter. UBC is a fantastic school.
Less bad news (gift link)
The Trump administration lifted a visa processing freeze for foreign physicians, ending a months-long halt that had sidelined thousands of doctors and exacerbated staffing shortages at hospitals across the country.
More bad news—
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/us/politics/fda-covid-vaccine-studies.html
The FDA has blocked the publication of several refereed journal articles (perhaps as many as 6) showing the efficacy of covid and shingles vaccinations.
Two large scale studies of the covid vaccines showed that the number of those reporting serious side effects was very small and the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing hospitalization in individual between the ages of 6 months and age 64 was very strong.
The shingles vaccination study found the vaccine to be safe and highly effective in preventing shingles in older adults.
I cannot understand why they would do this. (I mean I can, but…)
It looks like today’s announcement has the NSF sending research funds to tech companies rather than to universities to fund basic research. “This substantial long-term investment underscores NSF’s commitment to new models of research outside of traditional institutions, reflecting the truly interdisciplinary nature of today’s modern science ecosystem.”
https://www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-announces-15b-nsf-x-labs-initiative-pursue-generational
Reminder this is the Parent Forum, not the Political Forum. Please use the Political Forum for opinions and political commentary. TIA.
There are excellent reasons - reasons that benefit society - for NSF to fund research at universities rather than at corporations. Corporations must answer to shareholders, who expect profits. Universities are not profit- making, and they do not have to adjust research to focus on pleasing shareholders who want profits.
My son just finished his second round of PhD admissions, thankfully successful this time. During last year’s process he saw unaccepted offers being revoked prior to May 15th, fewer students accepted, and acceptances deferred a year due to funding cuts to the sciences. This year had additional funding cuts and taxation of endowments leading to even fewer available spots and acceptances, universities deciding mid-process to take no candidates, many unfunded offers, and unofficial acceptance emails being followed by rejections.
I feel bad for the kids applying next year (and society) with more funding cuts to research at universities. My friend’s daughter is applying to grad school this coming fall and is going to focus on European programs.
If all the research money goes to companies, how will we as a nation continue producing scientists? There are political undertones, but logistically it’s also a practical question.
Do you know what she is interested in studying?