Trump’s funding freeze is wreaking havoc on climate science
Federal dollars have bankrolled some of humanity’s biggest breakthroughs. What happens when they disappear?
Gabriel Filippelli got the form letter from the U.S. State Department on a Monday morning two and a half weeks ago. Since October, Filippelli has been teaching students and faculty in Pakistan how to use air quality devices to monitor air pollution exacerbated by rising temperatures — a consequence of climate change. The letter from the State Department, which had awarded the $300,000 underpinning the collaboration, said the funding was suspended, effective immediately. The project, it said, “no longer effectuates the priorities of the agency.”
Summary:
The Trump administration’s funding freeze is causing significant disruption to scientific research. This article uses the case of Gabriel Filippelli, executive director of the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University, to illustrate the immediate impacts. His $300,000 State Department-funded project in Pakistan was suddenly suspended, and several other research proposals are either delayed or at risk due to containing diversity-related language.
The freeze affects approximately $200 billion in annual federal research funding, which has historically supported major scientific breakthroughs from weather forecasting to GPS. Particularly concerning are the impacts on climate research, including programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act’s $370 billion climate spending package. The administration has also implemented a new policy capping indirect costs for research institutions at 15%, potentially creating significant financial shortfalls for universities that depend on these funds.
The administration’s actions face legal challenges, with 22 states suing over the indirect costs policy and a federal judge ordering the release of frozen funds. However, the administration has largely refused to comply with these judicial mandates. While some agencies like NIH have begun unfreezing grants, they warn of future changes, and researchers are being told to remove certain keywords like “underrepresented” from their proposals to maintain funding.
