This is text from a previous episode of the Daily Tech News Show detailing monthly changes affecting federal funding for science in the United States for April 10th 2025.
Main source: https://www.science.org/content/article/science-trump-latest-news
Picking up from last month’s update which went up to March 6th. Here we go!
- Food safety panels at the USDA (US department of agriculture) have been disbanded – 7 Mar 2025
These panels provide expert advice from scientists on microbial threats and meat inspections. Until they were stopped, they were working on reducing bacterial contamination that had led to infants being killed by baby formula in 2022, improving meat inspections with AI, and reducing harmful microbes in food with genomics.
- Columbia University defunded – 10 Mar 2025
The administration announced immediate termination of over $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University, allegedly in response to its pro-Palestine protests on campus. Later in the month this led to policy changes aligning with several of the administration’s demands in exchange for the restoration of their federal funding. This included the University’s president stepping down, hiring special officers with the ability to remove individuals from campus, adopting a new definition of antisemitism, banning masks during protests and issuing suspensions and degree revocations, among other things.
- NIH council meetings are back! – 20 Mar 2025
Last month I mentioned that the meetings where researchers review new grants were on pause. Now the freeze has been lifted. Funding is behind by about $1.5 Bil, compared to last year.
- More NIH frirings & grant cancellations – 3 April 2025
Over 1300 NIH employees fired and several institute leaders removed last week. There is also now a new mandate to eliminate $2.6 Bil in contracts. These contacts support the NIH workforce and many of its activities like clinical trials, vaccine development, or IT personnel.
- International college student crackdown – 4 April 2025
Some international students at US colleges are having their visas revoked. Sometimes with reasons like pro-palestine activism, sometimes without. Locally at the University of Alabama, an engineering graduate student was detained by ICE allegedly because of a traffic violation.
Nearly 300 students have had their visas revoked and face deportation from dozens of universities. The US is host to over a million international students, who are a huge part of the scientific workforce in the country.
- NSF GRFP cut in half – 8 April 2025
The National Science foundation’s graduate fellowship program supports exceptional graduate students through their degree in STEM fields. This year 1000 were funded, less than half of what was awarded last year. This is a prestigious program that funds a student for 3 years and can be life-changing for awardees. Importantly it is supposed to support some of the most brilliant upcoming scientists.
There’s more than we can ever cover in one segment! Let me know your thoughts, I’m sure there will be more next month!
Previous science news updates:
Nicole Ackermans, CVN lab 
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