NASA funding cuts are already affecting research and educational programs across the US
DCStockPhotography/Shutterstock
NASA has cancelled contracts and grants worth up to $420 million, following guidance from the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The cuts will impact research projects and educational programmes across the US, but NASA is being tight-lipped about confirming exactly which organisations are affected.
After DOGE, an independent task force led in effect by tech billionaire Elon Musk, announced the cuts, NASA confirmed the amount but refused to specify which programmes were cancelled. Casey Dreier at The Planetary Society, a non-profit organisation based in California, compiled a list of programmes that recently lost funding using the agency’s public grant database. NASA has since taken down the database and did not respond to questions about the list’s accuracy.
Many of the cuts on Dreier’s list align with President Donald Trump’s scepticism towards climate science and his administration’s aggressive targeting of its interpretation of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.
Climate-related cancellations include a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that uses satellite sensors to map the impacts of extreme heat, air pollution and flooding on prisons. Another target was University of Oklahoma research to develop digital twin simulations that predict the effects of floods on tribal lands.
But it is unclear why NASA ended support for other research, such as using bioengineered cells to examine how spaceflight affects the human body or modelling how lunar dust could contaminate future moon missions.
NASA spokesperson Bethany Stephens told New Scientist that the agency is “optimising its workforce and resources in alignment with the Department of Government Efficiency’s initiatives”. DOGE has pushed agencies across the US government to slash funding or shut down altogether.
But cancellations of ongoing grants and contracts fly in the face of the “rigorous” review process that selected them in the first place as the “most scientifically deserving proposals”, says Michael Battalio at Yale University. “Politics cannot and should not define what is scientifically worth studying at the level of individual grants,” says Battalio, who studies the atmospheres of Mars and Titan in preparation for future missions.
“The DEI-related cuts disturb me the most,” says Bruce Jakosky at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was the lead scientist on NASA’s MAVEN mission to Mars. “Those grants are about reaching out to underrepresented groups and ensuring that people have access to training and education – none of them appear to be about promoting less qualified people over more qualified people.”
For instance, NASA cut funding for a conference hosted by the National Society of Black Physicists, a long-standing non-profit organisation that promotes the professional well-being of African American physicists and physics students. “We were told that the reason for cancelling the contract was to comply with the executive order from the president concerning DEI,” says Stephen Roberson, president of the National Society of Black Physicists. “We are looking to appeal this decision and receive further clarification on why our annual conference where people of all races and academic levels present their scientific work is considered DEI.”
New Scientist reached out to researchers and organisations that appear to have been affected, but with the exception of the National Society of Black Physicists, most did not respond. The San Diego Air & Space Museum, which appeared on Dreier’s list, said its NASA funding for educational events seems to still be intact despite NASA’s database showing a change in the grant end date. NASA did not respond to a request to confirm the status of this funding.
Topics:
