White House science policy captured headlines this week, with the announcement of awards for its flagship AI program, Congressional hearings, and a Vannevar Bush-esque report "Science: A New Golden Age." We fashioned the news into one big story—incl. key updates at NSF. Reported w/ Kaia Glickman:

White House rolls out AI funding — and signals a new era for US science

Chief US science adviser calls for a shakeup in funding while handing out grants to accelerate research with AI.

nature.com

🚨Breaking🚨: NIH is terminating health disparities research grants again. This time, they may successfully avoid legal challenges by giving specific reasons for their decisions. One grant so far, more to come. Exclusive @science.org by me and @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social www.science.org/content/arti...

NIH is again terminating grants that the Trump administration dislikes

With cancellation of health disparities project, agency may be testing new way to legally kill politically sensitive grants

science.org

A devastating but lesser known part of federal science attacks is on the federal science advisory system. In a new post, I discuss the state of play on federal advisory committees and how the scientific community is pushing back through independent science efforts. blog.ucs.org/gretchen-gol...

Berg Curves in the wild! These funding curves--first created by @jeremymberg.bsky.social last year--continue to be one of the more impactful pages on Grant Witness' webpage. Hard to argue that NIH is healthy when the facts are so stark and staring at you in the face.

Britt Lundgren@brittlundgren.bsky.social · 2w ago

What a photo.

The complete list of terminations so far, as well as grants with slow-rolled renewals, and the halt of new funding at grant-witness.us/ahrq-data.html As always, we need your help to report this information! Submit info on NIH or AHRQ terminations at: grant-witness.us/submit-nih-a... 🧪 #AHRQ #NIH

This continues the administration's war on DEI. AHRQ is required by Congress to study health delivery to minorities, women, children, and low-income and elderly populations. Exactly these grants are being killed. The best predictor of termination is having "equity" in a title or abstract. 🧪 #AHRQ

For these grant recipients, terminations came after months - in some cases over a year - of silence. #AHRQ simply failed to renew annual budgets and left researchers hanging. Some are still waiting. Now years of research in healthcare effectiveness are cut off. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... 🧪

AHRQ exists to find ways to deliver better, lower cost healthcare. Trump’s gutting it. Earlier today, we posted what we believe is a complete list of AHRQ terminations from last week. ⤵️ If you have more info, please submit it here: grant-witness.us/submit-nih-a...

Noam Ross@noamross.net · 2w ago

Last week's terminations at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) total at least 150 grants worth $230M. That is over half of the agency's portfolio. It's the latest assault on healthcare, health equity, and the rule of law. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #AHRQ 🧪

New CBO paper: every $1 of federal R&D returns ~$3–$4 of GDP in present value over 30 years www.nber.org/papers/w35472

‼️ AHRQ is in the midst of a mass grant termination event. We (at Grant Witness) need your help to launch a tracker ASAP. If you received an AHRQ termination notice--or if you know of someone else who did--please submit information about the grant here: grant-witness.us/submit-nih.h...

‼️ AHRQ is in the midst of a mass grant termination event. We (at Grant Witness) need your help to launch a tracker ASAP. If you received an AHRQ termination notice--or if you know of someone else who did--please submit information about the grant here: grant-witness.us/submit-nih.h...

TINA SMITH: Researchers in MN made a breakthrough in childhood cancer in Black kids with a grant. But it seems that according to your proposed rule, this type of research wouldn't allowed bc it's 'DEI.' VOUGHT: We are against DEI policies. We have intended to rid of them whenever we possibly can.

The great hall at the National Academy of Sciences. The domed ceiling reads: “To science: pilot of industry, conqueror of disease, multiplier of the harvest, explorer of the universe, revealer of nature’s laws, eternal guide to truth”

New: The National Science Foundation is preparing to claw back some $500 million in funds from some of its core science programs in physics, math, computer science, and engineering in order to fund a project from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

NSF plans cuts to core science programmes to fund White House initiative

A proposed clawback of already distributed research funds comes as the US agency’s budget is already squeezed and it struggling to clear a backlog of grant applications.

nature.com

In a rare move, a bipartisan group of US senators passed legislation prohibiting the Trump administration from dismantling a multimillion-dollar research project studying ocean currents and climate change impacts. But many other programs crucial to understanding climate change remain at risk.

Outrage rescued an important ocean research program. Crucial ones remain at risk.

Senators saved the Ocean Observatories Initiative from "supreme stupidity." But other cutting-edge efforts are running out of funding, too.

buff.ly

This week @ucs.org launches a new interactive tool on the staggering 574 attacks on science so far under the Trump Administration. It's hard to convey the full scope and severity of what's happening but this tool helps us make sense of it and what we can all do about it: www.attacksonscience.org

Both of these were shown in the House Science hearing today - one by @georgewhitesides.bsky.social (Dem) and one by McCormick (Rep). You can guess who showed which graph.

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · last mo.

NSF grantmaking update Two weeks ago (6/8) New grants: 1,471/4,407 — 33.4% of avg. Obligations: 1.70/2.52 billion — 67.4% of avg. Now (6/22) New grants: 1549/4481 — 32.6% of avg. Obligations: 1.8/2.82 billion — 63.8% of avg. Data from: grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Thousands of biomedical studies are stuck in limbo as NIH drags out renewals months after annual budgets expire. Since 2025, the rate of overdue renewals has TRIPLED. This leaves scientists unable to plan, keep staff employed, or maintain long-term research. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NIH 🧪

Overdue Grant Renewals at NIH and AHRQ – Grant Witness

The government’s delays renewing in-progress research are leaving researchers in limbo.

grant-witness.us

Climate.us is live. Built by members of the team behind Climate.gov, this new independent nonprofit website keeps trusted climate information easy to find, easy to use, and harder to erase. #ClimateForUs #ClimateUS

New @nberpubs: "Before the Exodus? Young Scientists and the Future of US Science" www.nber.org/papers/w3533... "The fraction likely to stay in the United States fell by 21 percentage points" 😔

Update: The flag on Princeton's grants was removed on June 4, around the same time NSF got this letter from Democrats on the House Science Committee, demanding details. democrats-science.house.gov/imo/media/do...

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Important update: This morning NSF removed its internal flags on 3 of the 4 universities (Princeton's remains). We've updated our story to reflect this and the release of the new awards to Harvard and Duke.

AHRQ is a no-brainer for anyone interested in better, cheaper healthcare. Congress agrees and has funded it accordingly, but Trump & OMB are hellbent on killing it. New AHRQ awards by fiscal year: FY24: 317 (pre-Trump) FY25: 6 FY26: 0 See more of our curves here: grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Miranda Yaver@mirandayaver.bsky.social · 2mo ago

House Appropriations released its FY27 bill, again working to eliminate Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which it calls "duplicative." My friend/colleague @sundermannaj.bsky.social & I wrote on AHRQ's necessity. thehill.com/opinion/heal... appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-su...

Breaking: Judge Jackson blocks NSF from dismantling NCAR. www.courtlistener.com/docket/72496...

Second time this week that I’m aware of that a news story made a federal funding agency cave and restart a grant process.

Emily Mullin@emilymullin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

After our story was published, an HHS official emailed us and said: "NIH will continue to fund the CREID program. NIAID is currently reviewing applications and will prioritize funding meritorious awards that meet agency priorities. Awards will be made in FY 2026." We've updated the story.

A new proposed rule on federal grantmaking — across agencies, this is much broader than research awards — just dropped. Screenshot from page 48 public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-10817.pdf

American science right now is basically 10,000 of these stories, all with their own heartbreaking specificity Lost careers, lost progress, lost discoveries I feel so sad every day for all we’ve lost and continue to lose 💔

Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 3mo ago

“Dr. Antaki, a biomedical engineer, had been building an artificial heart for babies and young children, a pump the size of a AA battery, and he was getting close. But with his research grants stopped, Dr. Antaki slowly drained his lab’s rainy day funds, and he was forced to lay off all his staff.”

Many people have a vested interest in pretending otherwise, but the US research university is globally dominant to an almost unbelievable degree. The typical state university is a football team stapled to a R&D lab with a budget bigger than the entire nation of Belgium.

Zoomer Antimillenarian@surcomplicated.bsky.social · 3mo ago

This is a paranoid fantasy that the media encourages but it’s actually not true. The US produces a very educated populace. It’s just that the sheer scale of our R&D requires drawing on the finest talents of a far larger population base via immigration.

When the Great Defunding started in 2025, the European Union introduced a "bold" program to attract top scientists from the US, funded at the tune of about ~$500 million spread over 3-5 years. In 2024, the NIH allocated almost twice as that per week.

Quantian@quantian.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Many people have a vested interest in pretending otherwise, but the US research university is globally dominant to an almost unbelievable degree. The typical state university is a football team stapled to a R&D lab with a budget bigger than the entire nation of Belgium.

My co-authors and I surveyed international grad students and postdocs, asking them if they would have come to study in the US if they'd known about the current wave of restrictions on international students. About half said no. MIT is already down 20%, more to come. www.iza.org/publications...

MIT has lost 500 international grad students relative to last year. Caused directly by the White House. Closing America's doors to the very best, most brilliant people on the planet is like dropping a bomb directly on America's capacity to innovate. On the prosperity of our children's future.

A message from MIT President Sally Kornbluth

YouTube video by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

youtube.com