The New Plan for American Science: Good Luck, America!
The Trump administration through the office of management and budget (OMB) is creating a new set of rules that will further devastate US science, kicking us while we are down. The rule change is open for public comments ([OMB-2026-0034-0001](https://www.regulations.gov/document/OMB-2026-0034-0001)) and I urge people to push back.
A very detailed summary can be found at: [https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of-key-changes-in-ombs-proposed](https://elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of-key-changes-in-ombs-proposed)
There are a lot of details, but essentially it allows the Trump administration to cancel a grant for any reason. They can cancel them because the primary investigator's (PI) memberships in other groups, they can do so based on the institution, pretty much any retaliatory reason. The science can't cover any DEI or forbidden topic (including women's health, climate science, etc), and all grants must align with the administration's agenda. Peer review is downgraded, the final decisions on funding will be made by the political appointees. Grants announcements no longer have to be publicly announced.
Basically these allow the administration to prevent anyone who wishes to continue to be funded from doing anything political, from advocating publicly for their science, and hamstrings scientific topics allowed. Without peer review, funding is going to be chosen based on vibes. Not publicly announcing the solicitations means that the Administration can simply choose who (or what institutions) can compete.
Scientists will need to get permission to travel to a conference and present their work. (Right now we merely need to follow travel guidelines in terms of how we spend money.) We all know how timely this is going to be. Scientists will not be allowed to use grant money to publish papers or to join professional organizations or to access journal articles. Scientists will not be allowed to collaborate with people from covered foreign countries, which extends quite a bit beyond China.
This essentially will make it impossible for completed research to be known to the world (and even the US) and destroy the point of science. It also will kill entire fields where large collaborations are the norm because the small scale science is complete. This includes nuclear physics, particle physics and astrophysics. This will degrade the quality of any research being done as we can not legally consult with our peers.
The national labs are already hemorrhaging scientists, many of whom are leaving the country. In my field of nuclear physics, nearly every one with a PhD who does not have a permanent job is planning their exit strategy. The universities are also losing young scientists, and the earlier issues with the DOE, NSF, NIH, etc, mean that many institutions have drastically decreased the number of new graduate students that we admit. This is somewhat balanced by the fact that the number of applications has dropped like a rock.
Like so many things this administration has done, this is very stupid. This also will have a decades long impact, and may not even be recoverable. There are also many unintended consequences. For example, most medical and health physicists needed for radiation oncology and advanced imaging services get their graduate degrees supported in fields such as nuclear physics. Only a few hundred are produced a year in the US, and already they are not keeping up with demand. This is killing a major part of this pipeline.
Along with commenting on the proposed change to the OMB, please contact your Congressional folks because this unnecessary attack on science after the funding hits we have taken in the last year will be fatal.