White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation

NSF grants are already hard enough to get as it is. A reduction of the budget to this extent would just make it a total waste of time to apply for NSF grants. It would have the effect of pushing academics further towards industry funding - which might be the entire point.

Industry funding is incredibly selective, and many industry funders are basically looking to turn university researchers into extensions of their R&D divisions. This will be disastrous for the concept of academic freedom - and the ability for people to explore interesting problems that might not have immediate commercial impact.

Science research of the types funded by NSF are the best forms of US soft power, and also good will, if that is still an allowed concept.

If this is like yesterday’s coverage on HN of NIH and NSF budgets we can expect a lively and unusually engage political discussion here. I was hoping for a little sanity as during Trump 1. No such luck.

Time to get much more engaged.

Damn it, I was having so much fun figuring out the genetics of lifespan.

The NSF's budget is already below where it was supposed to be after passing the CHIPS act.

https://www.science.org/content/article/analysis-how-nsf-s-b...

I was pretty perturbed to discover an NSF grant I was involved with spent about 10% of the budget on-the-ground paying equipment and labor, while the other 90% went towards the university department that arranged for the grant. Not that the department head didn’t put in many hours over years of effort to establish that grant (among others), but it just seemed like comingling funds to me as an outsider, like, the money didn’t go to what the grant said it was for except in a tertiary way of “the phd students have to come from somewhere” but through a series of fumbles no research really came out of the project, but at least a middle school got a makerspace out of it.

I guess what I’m saying is, there’s a lot of people who have experienced what feels like government waste and voted for a party that promises to dismantle the bureaucracy, so I’m not surprised they’re making these moves.

Will the world be worse off for it, probably. Will the current crop of billionaires make up for it by funding public institutions like the Carnegies and Rockefellers? Doubt it. Maybe Europe and Asia will pick up the slack (and brain drain the USA as a result)

I thought the (I don't know the word) "pro business" voter liked funding public research? "Socialize risk. Privatize profit." and all that.

This is why: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2024/10/new-cruz-investigati...

(Not sure why I got downvoted. I am neither defending nor accusing, just making an attempt to explain)

Note that the President's budget request is literally that: A request.

The power of the purse, insofar as legislating it, rests solely with the House of Representatives. They can listen to the request or completely ignore it or write up something in-between. The President's request has no weight, though it could be a useful indicator of the future.

"Could"

The National Science Foundation has received an annual budget of approximately $9 billion, the vast majority of which is spent on research and research-related activities.

We shall see.