Spring 2026 Colloquium - Christine Leuenberger

Title: Science under attack: US research funding in the political crossfire 

 

Abstract: Since WWII the US federal government helped fund cutting-edge developments in Science and Technology (S&T). In 1944, President Roosevelt - aware that S&T was crucial for winning the war - had asked Vannevar Bush (then the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development) how S&T could help maintain peace. Bush’s 1945 report Science: The Endless Frontier provided a national science policy and recommended the establishment of a science agency which was created with the signing of the "National Science Foundation Act of 1950”. 

 

Since then, NSF has been the primary funder of basic research in the US and is essential for the academic research enterprise. For 75 years, since NSF’s establishment, S&T funded by government was seen as essential for US leadership, economic competitiveness, and national interests and had helped usher in the golden age of US science. However, at the 75th anniversary of the establishment of NSF, NSF staffers, wanting to celebrate NSF’s contribution to the US science enterprise, had to do so without official approval. How did we get here? 

 

This paper traces how NSF become increasingly subject to political oversight under the Trump-Vance administration. The multi-pronged attacks happened across various institutional levels virtually simultaneously – by ‘flooding the zone’ – long-established procedures, priorities, and values come under attack as the agency was drained of expertise through Reduction of Force initiatives, forced resignations and retirements. 

 

This paper focuses on how NSF – an independent agency that traditionally had bipartisan support - become increasingly subject to political dictates. At the same time, the focus is on ways program directors and staffers continue to support the scientific community and try to fund impactful science.