The number of new grants handed out by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since President Donald Trump took office has fallen by nearly 50% compared with the same 2-month period 1 year ago. The drop off – which has reduced the funds awarded to researchers by more than $400 million – is even steeper for engineering, education, and computing sciences, as well as NSF’s new technology directorate.

The $1.1 billion education directorate, for example, made only 12 new awards between 21 January and 27 March compared with 120 during the same period in 2024. The difference in dollars is equally staggering: $6 million versus $64 million. The $1 billion Directorate for Engineering made 63 awards, down from 351, totaling $24 million versus $150 million.

Those numbers come from an analysis by David Miller, an NSF-funded research psychologist who studies science education. He found that NSF made 919 new awards across its eight directorates between when Trump returned to the White House and 27 March, compared with 1707 in the same period of 2024. This year’s grants obligated a total of $564 million versus $1 billion 1 year earlier.

 
Source https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-has-awarded-almost-50-fewer-grants-trump-took-office

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