Research funding news covering NIH, NSF, EU frameworks, defense research budgets, and science policy appropriations.
The Trump administration cut off health care research grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality without prior warning. AcademyHealth reported 67 cutoff grants lost nearly $97 million in estimated remaining committed funding. Recipients received boilerplate letters stating their awards would no longer be funded.
The Trump administration's budget cuts specifically targeted wildfire research programs, according to a New York Times report. The cuts could impact efforts to understand and mitigate wildfires.
The commentary argues that India must achieve technological independence to enhance resilience and build indispensability, using the Strait of Hormuz crisis as a cautionary example. It contends that India now has the funds, talent, and opportunity for a research leap, citing the Anusandhan National Research Foundation as a catalytic initiative to boost R&D spending and private sector involvement.
West Virginia University, partnering with the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, received $160 million in federal funding to establish an industrial energy innovation hub. The grant aims to advance energy technology and economic development in the region.
This commentary argues that recent US government actions, particularly a proposed rule change granting political employees final review of federal research funding, threaten the post-WWII consensus on science funding established by Vannevar Bush. It contends that a new bipartisan agreement is needed to preserve government-industry-academia partnerships, international collaboration, and basic research.
The letter argues that thinktanks' reliance on profit-driven financial businesses for funding is a structural weakness, using the Aberdeen Group's termination of the Financial Fairness Trust as an example. It suggests the UK should adopt a state-funded model for thinktanks, similar to Germany's party foundations, to address corrupt political funding.