Is the NSF slashing research to fund a tech initiative?
Also: SciAm sold, two Max Planck papers retracted, a big study links AI to skill atrophy in schoolkids, and more from last week
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Science published a shocking scoop last week: Insiders at the U.S. National Science Foundation — the major U.S. funder of basic research — told reporter Jeffrey Mervis that the agency is cutting funding for science programs by 20-30% this year. Some fields will be hit harder than others: Mervis' sources said geosciences could be cut by 60% and biology by 75%. Program managers were told to keep quiet about the cuts rather than tell scientists what was happening.
The hush-hush budget cuts could explain why so few NSF grants have been awarded this year. Even though the enacted 2026 NSF budget is just 3% less than in 2025, only one eighth of the grants awarded in fiscal year 2025 had been awarded by June 15 this year (more than 60% through the fiscal year). That's according to funding watchdog Grant Witness. And 2025 was already a bad year; the last time so few grants were awarded was 1985.
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