7/11/25: Senate Appropriators Reject Trump’s NSF Cuts (Inside Higher Ed) The Senate committee also protected the National Weather Service staff from mass layoffs. But a fight over the FBI has left the bill in limbo. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/07/11/senate-rejects-trumps-cuts-nsf-other-science
See also: Senate spending panel would rescue NSF and NASA science funding (Science) https://www.science.org/content/article/senate-spending-panel-would-rescue-nsf-and-nasa-science-funding
7/11/25: How US Universities Became So Vulnerable to Government Threats (Bloomberg) Military and medical since brought federal funding to American college campuses, but student tuition keep it there. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-11/how-us-universities-became-so-vulnerable-to-trump-s-attacks?srnd=phx-industries-health&embedded-checkout=true
7/10/25: Updates to NSF Research Security Policies (NSF): On July 10, 2025, NSF issued an Important Notice providing Updates to NSF Research Security Policies, including: a research security training requirement, Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program annual certification requirement, prohibition on Confucius institutes and an updated FFDR reporting and submission timeline. https://www.nsf.gov/research-security
7/10/25: Trump Seeks to Cut Basic Scientific Research by Roughly One-Third, Report Shows (New York Times) President Trump’s budget plan guts federal science funding for the next fiscal year, according to an overview published by an external group. Particularly at risk is the category of basic research — the blue-sky variety meant to push back the frontiers of human knowledge and sow practical spinoffs and breakthroughs in such everyday fields as health care and artificial intelligence. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/science/trump-science-budget-cuts.html
7/10/25: NIH grant cuts, FDA transparency questions, and biotech M&A (STAT) On this week’s episode of “The Readout LOUD”: a closer look at the NIH’s grant-cutting legal playbook, a not-so-transparent transparency push by the FDA commissioner, and another big biotech acquisition. https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/10/readout-loud-podcast-biotech-mergers-acquisitions-nih-grant-cuts-fda-transparency/
7/10/25: Academic groups finalize counterproposal to Trump’s research overhead cuts (STAT, COGR Mention) A coalition of academic organizations has finalized a proposed alternative to the Trump administration’s plan to cut billions of dollars in research overhead payments. https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/10/academic-groups-finalize-alternative-to-trumps-cuts-jag-nih-aau/
7/10/25: NIH director is replacing his top outside advisory board (Science) In yet another shake-up at the world’s largest biomedical research agency, President Donald Trump’s administration has disbanded the top advisory committee to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, Science has learned. The Advisory Committee to the Director (ACD) will be reconvened with new membership, NIH says. https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-director-replacing-his-top-outside-advisory-board
7/10/25: Trump Signed the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.’ What’s Next? (Inside Higher Ed) Colleges should start communicating with students about the changes while bracing for state budget cuts, higher ed experts say. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/student-aid-policy/2025/07/10/whats-next-after-trump-signed-big-beautiful-bill
7/10/25: NIH Plans to Cap Publisher Fees, Dilute ‘Scientific Elite’ (Inside Higher Ed) Director of the National Institutes of Health says that capping research journals’ open-access fees will help rein in the $19 billion academic publishing industry and bolster scientific debate. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/government/science-research-policy/2025/07/10/nih-plans-cap-publisher-fees-dilute-scientific
See also: NIH to crack down on excessive publisher fees for publicly funded research (NIH News Release) https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-crack-down-excessive-publisher-fees-publicly-funded-research
7/10/25: Since the 1950s, Over Half of R&D Expenditures at U.S. Colleges and Universities Have Been Funded by the Federal Government (NCSES InfoChart) Universities’ own R&D funding increased during this period as well, from $35 million in FY 1953 to $28 billion in FY 2023. As a share of total expenditures, institution funds have represented 25% since 2016. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf25345?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
7/8/25: Supreme Court Issues Nationwide Injunction Ruling – Just How Much Will It Change the Litigation Landscape for Schools, Their Students, and Their Employees? (JD Supra) The Court’s ruling implicates challenges to many other Trump EOs and agency actions that litigants have successfully fought, or were seeking to fight, by way of nationwide injunction. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/supreme-court-issues-nationwide-5049676/
7/8/25: The Scientists Who Got Ghosted by the NIH (The Chronicle) In yet another variation on this theme, the NIH has quietly disappeared a number of new grant applications from researchers around the country. Earlier this spring, I reported that this figure was at least 20 . More recent internal data I’ve obtained shows that, as of May, 43 applications — submitted from 35 institutions in 22 states — were stuck in this peer-review purgatory. (The NIH did not return a request for comment.) https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-scientists-who-got-ghosted-by-the-nih
7/7/25: Guidance on Enforcement of Closeout Requirements During the Appeals Process (NOT-OD-25-128) The purpose of this notice is to provide the extramural community with guidance on enforcement of standard closeout requirements on NIH grants and cooperative agreements during the agency priorities grant appeals pre-award procedures. https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-128.html
7/7/25: Turbulent research landscape imperils US brain gain − and ultimately American prosperity (The Conversation) To remain preeminent, the U.S. will need to keep attracting exceptional foreign graduate students, budding entrepreneurs and established scientific leaders. https://theconversation.com/turbulent-research-landscape-imperils-us-brain-gain-and-ultimately-american-prosperity-258537
7/7/25: The Wrecking of American Research (The Chronicle) Federal policy made universities in the United States the envy of the world. One presidency could end that. https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-wrecking-of-american-research
7/7/25: ‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels (Science) In response, graduate schools have reduced the size of their incoming cohorts and faculty have been anxiously watching their budgets and worrying about their own careers. “My lab is definitely going to shrink,” says Arthi Jayaraman, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Delaware. https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-nightmare-u-s-funding-cuts-threaten-academic-science-jobs-all-levels
7/6/25: Columbia in Talks With Trump Administration Over Restoring Federal Funding (Wall Street Journal) Columbia University’s board of trustees on Sunday discussed terms of a possible deal with the Trump administration that would restore at least some of the school’s federal funding, according to people familiar with the matter. Recent versions of a potential agreement between the school and the government haven’t included a consent decree , according to two of those people. A government task force had initially sought to put the university under a consent decree, which would have put a federal judge in charge of overseeing Columbia’s compliance. https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/columbia-federal-funding-negotiations-deal-trump-consent-decree-88427d9a?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1