Even as someone who has spent his career in or adjacent to higher education, because of my role (instructor) and discipline (English/writing/humanities), the “research” mission of higher education institutions has been a bit of an abstraction to me. I know it’s something universities do, and there are lots of people who do it, but the actual mechanics of the work remain mysterious.
So when the Trump administration says they’re cutting off grants or preventing institutions from applying for new grants from entities like the National Institutes of Health, I understand the big picture, but what’s happening on the ground inside institutions and how these attacks will resonate across our collective futures can also feel a little mysterious.
The latest edition of our Academic Freedom on the Line podcast, hosted by CDAF fellow Vineeta Singh and featuring Mary Feeney and Ethan Prall, helps us better understand the specifics of what’s being disrupted and also gives us ways to identify how these disruptions may be affecting us at the local and institutional level so we can rally our local and campus communities to resisting these attacks.
I learned a lot. I think you will too. Show notes below. Enjoy.
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Show notes for Episode 6: Science Funding
We’ve all heard about the changes to federal research funding since the beginning of the Trump administration. This episode of our special series Academic Freedom on the Line takes a deeper look at the landscape of federal research funding. How is research funding allocated? What is disrupted when these funds are precipitously cut? What could this mean for the future of research in the United States? To help us answer these questions, we call on experts in the fields of federal bureaucracy and legal studies. Our guests are Mary Feeney and Ethan Prall. Feeney is the Frank and June Sackton Chair and Professor in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University and Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Prall is an environmental legal scholar and scientist, a Harvard Law School grad, and currently an Abess Fellow, Society of Conservation Biology Graduate Student Fellow, and doctoral candidate in environmental science and policy at the University of Miami.
Links to resources mentioned in the conversation:
AAUP Action Report: Understanding the Law and Policies for Grant Terminations for the National Science Foundation
NSF Funding breakdown by state: Workbook: NSF by Numbers
NIH in your state: NIH In Your State - United For Medical Research
Science is US: Do science and engineering drive economic growth?
Grant Watch tracker compiled by Noam Ross and Scott Delaney: https://grant-watch.us/
75th anniversary edition of The Endless Frontier by Vannevar Bush
