#research-funding

#research-funding

Around the world, budgets for fundamental research - studies that seek primarily to advance knowledge for its own sake, without an expectation of a return on investment - are coming under pressure to an extent not seen for at least a generation. In the United States, the principal funder of fundamental research, the National Science Foundation, has this year terminated some 1,600 grants worth a total of US$1 billion, a huge chunk of its $10 billion budget.

Immunology is at a pivotal moment. The huge successes in public health brought about by vaccines are now facing erosion, as anti-vaccination sentiments spread around the world and the United States cuts funding to domestic and overseas infectious-disease research. Measles, for example, was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 by the World Health Organization, but in July this year, there were more reported cases than in any year since 1992.

The fee, the complaint states, "will result in significant and potentially catastrophic setbacks to research that benefits the American public and ensures the United States remains a leading source of innovation and expertise. For example, the fee will likely result in sharp cutbacks in the employment of highly talented foreign workers and severe setbacks for university research, graduate programs, and clinical care, compounding an anticipated shortfall of 5.3 million skilled workers over the next decade."

If artificial intelligence takes over, some argue, there's little point in studying physics or any science. AI could be doing half your job before you even get your degree. But that argument ignores why people study science in the first place. It's to figure out new things, to ask questions uncurious bots would never dream of. Humans love that whole problem-solving process. It's why they like to get the sides of Rubik's cube to match.

This fund is our Plan for Change in action,

"As a proud alum, I've seen UMass Amherst, including its College of Engineering, become a world-class institution over the past 20 years. While UMass has come a long way, I believe it has untapped potential and with the right level of investment and support, its best days are yet to come," Riccio, who also received his Master of Science from the college in 2024, wrote in the donation's announcement.

Alán Aspuru-Guzik takes a lot of calls these days from scientists considering an exit from the United States. Aspuru-Guzik, a theoretical chemist, left Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, during Donald Trump's first term as US president, from 2017 to 2021, to join the University of Toronto in Canada and hasn't looked back. "I'm the happiest guy here," he says. Aspuru-Guzik left because he didn't agree with Trump's politics and policies.

Unlike many sector bodies, NCUB combines government backing with membership contributions from both universities and businesses, a model it says ensures policy recommendations and practice are grounded in the realities of both sectors. Over the next four years, NCUB's strategy will focus on three core priorities: making the UK a more attractive destination for business investment, strengthening links between universities and companies to accelerate innovation, and building coordinated responses to global change across the skills, research and innovation system.

Parents, grandparents and others their age lined El Camino Real during Monday's 17×17 Labor Day rally - as in previous anti-Trump protests. But where were the younger people? At the protest, aiming to line up 17,000 people for 17 miles of El Camino Real in a safe, civil and welcoming environment, elders seemed to far outnumber teens and people in their 20s. Kristina Schmidt, 63, a bookkeeper from San Jose, said she was in attendance to defend several causes such as gay marriage, immigration and Medicaid.

Perhaps most damningly, the younger Kennedy has elected to " wind down" the development of mRNA vaccines and cancel $500 million in research contracts because of his vaccine skepticism, particularly as it relates to COVID-19 vaccines. Along with its incredible efficacy at staving off further death from the coronavirus pandemic, researchers working with mRNA believe they may be close to achieving a monumental milestone: creating a universal cancer vaccine using the promising biotechnology.

"The whole ecosystem that we have built around AI, that has been created by federal support, could soon be seriously undermined."

Ongoing economic uncertainty in 2025 has created serious operational and financial challenges for higher education institutions. Anticipated changes in federal policy are expected to have significant budgetary consequences.

Current efforts to destroy science and slash research funding undermine my ability to provide continued support for nonhuman primate research at UMass. As we are completing a large study to help women with breast cancer live a better life, I have taken the decision to no longer seek funding to support a marmoset colony at UMass.

China's latest Antarctic station, Qinling, located on Inexpressible Island, is set to conduct studies on marine and terrestrial ecology and other significant topics.

Repeated data collection through field campaigns, experiments, and high-performance computing significantly contributes to emissions, necessitating considerable funding and labor from researchers.

The FAIR principles have transformed the scientific landscape by ensuring that data is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, thereby enhancing the integrity of research.

Called "The things we'll never know," the event was meant to highlight the work of researchers whose grants had been canceled by the Trump administration.

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not yet rescinded directives that led to the cancellation of more than 2,400 research projects it funded, despite a ruling declaring them illegal.

Of the 20 members in his group, he will soon run out of money to pay the salaries for four. As of June, he estimated that his team has enough to keep going for about six months in its current form if it draws money from other funding sources.