3/31/25 : It’s RFK Jr.’s FDA now (STAT) Why the ouster of a senior FDA official is a huge deal, whether you liked him or not. https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/31/rfk-fda-peter-marks-ouster-vaccines-gene-therapy/
3/28/25: HHS emergency response unit given two days to figure out its fate (STAT) Restructuring will include merging BARDA with Biden-founded ARPA-H. https://www.statnews.com/2025/03/28/hhs-emergency-response-unit-given-48-hours-to-plan-move-to-cdc-control/
3/28/25: Can America’s universities survive the Trump era? (Washington Post, Opinion) So far, universities appear all too willing to bow to the president’s will as they confront demands to adopt the White House’s positions, including a broadened definition of antisemitism and a crackdown on protests… Is free speech merely a weapon to wield against opponents rather than a value to uphold consistently? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/28/prompt-trump-universities-higher-education/
See also: David Leonhardt: ‘By the Time Trump Comes for Your University, It’s Probably Too Late’ (New York Times, Opinion) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/opinion/universities-trump-fight-back.html
See also: What Trump did to Columbia and Paul Weiss is a warning to all of us (Washington Post, Opinion): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/30/columbia-paul-weiss-hostage-tariffs/
3/28/25: Are Trump’s cuts to science the end of the endless frontier? (New Scientist) In a letter to Michael Kratsios, director of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Trump administration said on 26 March that the US needs to revitalise its science and technology enterprise and accelerate research and development. But President Donald Trump has spent the early months of his second term dismantling the very research apparatus built for this purpose. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2473749-are-trumps-cuts-to-science-the-end-of-the-endless-frontier/
See also: American progress in peril (Axios) https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/us-science-china-trump
See also: Trump to OSTP’s Kratsios: ‘Blaze a trail’ for science and tech supremacy (FedScoop) https://fedscoop.com/trump-letter-to-ostp-michael-kratsios-science-tech/
3/28/25 : Lawyer: Russia May Arrest Harvard Med Researcher if Deported (Inside Higher Ed) Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining a Harvard Medical School research associate who’s a Russian native. One of Kseniia Petrova’s lawyers says the government is trying to deport her to Russia, where she faces possible arrest due to her “prior political activism and outspoken opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” https://www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-takes/2025/03/28/lawyer-russia-may-arrest-harvard-med-researcher-if-deported
3/28/25: Trump Administration Wants ‘AI Dominance’ But Lays Siege to Key Grant Agency (The Chronicle) American academics are sounding the alarm that staff reductions and anticipated budget cuts at the National Science Foundation are handicapping one of the Trump administration’s touted priorities: AI research and development. https://www.chronicle.com/article/trump-administration-wants-ai-dominance-but-lays-siege-to-key-grant-agency
3/28/25: These US labs risk imminent closure after Trump cuts (Nature) Even when the first four of his five federal grants were cancelled in February, Jeremy Springman still had hope. The social-science research that he co-leads at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia had enough funding from a large US Department of Defense project to tide him over for two more years. He checked in with his defence-department programme officer, who reassured him that the remaining grant would be safe. But by mid-March, it was gone, too — and with it, Springman reckons, his last shot at earning a living by doing research. “That was really the end of things,” he says. “My position just isn’t going to be viable in the future.” https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00924-4
3/28/25: Publishers trial paying peer reviewers — what did they find? (Nature) This month, two journals released data from their own experiments that suggest that offering payments of around US$250 to researchers who review manuscripts speeds up the process, without affecting the quality of reviews. But some specialists warn that the practice could have unintended consequences for science and publishing. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00968-6
3/27/25: ‘This is the law, allocate the funding’: Trump’s funding freeze faces bipartisan and renewed court opposition (Government Executive) Top appropriators in the Senate are accusing Trump of unlawfully withholding $3 billion from the just-signed FY25 spending bill. https://www.govexec.com/management/2025/03/law-allocate-funding-trumps-funding-freeze-faces-bipartisan-and-renewed-court-opposition/404109/
See also: Appeals court keeps block on Trump’s sweeping funding freeze (The Hill) https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5216594-appeals-court-keeps-block-on-trumps-sweeping-funding-freeze/
