GoKawiilPresident Trump’s administration has proposed wide-ranging changes to the system for awarding federal research grants.Credit: Anna Rose Layden/Getty
Scientists are raising the alarm about a far-reaching White House proposal that could fundamentally recast federally funded science. The proposed rules would put political appointees in control of all federal grants; de-emphasize peer review; place more restrictions on meeting attendance for grant holders; limit collaborations between federally funded US scientists and overseas colleagues; and restrict federal financial support for the publication of US scientists’ results in scientific journals.
The 412-page proposal, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on 29 May, applies to all federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) — the world’s largest funder of biomedical research — and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The OMB says that it aims to “improve transparency, accountability, and oversight” of federal funds. In a statement, an OMB spokesperson said that “federal grants were already politicized to promote a far-left agenda”. The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to implement the proposal on 1 October.
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Just four days after it was posted, the proposal had drawn more than 3,500 comments from the public. Comments reviewed by Nature were almost all critical, although some agreed that reform was needed. Many comments were from prominent researchers, such as leading oceanographer Dawn Wright, chief scientist of Esri, a global company specializing in geographic information system software, in Redlands, California, who wrote that the proposal “is dangerous and absolutely politicizes science”. Suzanne Segerstrom, a biostatistician at Oregon State University in Corvallis, wrote: “This regulation harms taxpayers, harms Americans’ health, and contravenes federal policy. I am in strong opposition.”
On 2 June, some 2,000 people attended an emergency virtual meeting to mobilize opposition to the proposal. A variety of speakers at the meeting, which was organized by the advocacy group Stand Up for Science (SUFS), implored attendees to submit comments against the rule.
The proposal is a “brazen power grab by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and will make future discoveries less likely”, said Sudip Parikh, the chief executive officer of scientific society American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a statement. The American Society for Cell Biology described it as a “massive threat to American science”.
Many policy specialists say that the proposal could be the most momentous yet from an administration that has already had substantial effects on US research. “I think people understand this is the big one,” says psychologist Colette Delawalla, director of SUFS, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia. “If it gets through, we’re screwed.”
Power for political appointees
Historically, US research grants have been managed by career civil servants, many of them scientists. But an executive order signed by Trump in August 2025 directed federal agencies to give political appointees oversight of grants to ensure that they “advance the President’s policy priorities”.
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