Federal science on pause amid shutdown; Trump makes offer to nine universities

Shutdown impacts federal science

The federal government shutdown has triggered a full stop for most research activities inside science agencies. Several of these agencies have furloughed most of their staff while allowing work on external research grants to continue. The White House says it has begun firing federal employees in response to the shutdown, though it remains unclear how many people have been affected.

According to their shutdown “lapse plans,” science agencies have paused most basic research conducted internally while keeping some employees working without pay to maintain research equipment. Some agencies have been able to continue certain work using funding outside annual appropriations; for instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology can continue to pay for work on semiconductor R&D using funding from the CHIPS and Science Act.

For extramural research, agencies such as the National Science Foundation and NASA are not issuing new solicitations, reviewing grant applications, or awarding new grants during the shutdown. At NSF, which almost entirely funds extramural research, work can continue on any awards that still have funds available and do not need intervention from federal staff. Researchers can still submit proposals, and NSF says it will issue guidance regarding any deadlines that passed during the shutdown after it ends. Researchers are also permitted to conduct ad hoc reviews, but review panels are being rescheduled. NASA specifies that the agency will only provide post-shutdown funding for research activities that are “aligned with presidential priorities.”

Before the shutdown, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed agencies to consider reductions in force, in addition to standard furloughs, as part of their shutdown plans. OMB said these RIFs should target programs that do not have alternative sources of funding and are “not consistent with the president’s priorities.”

Two unions for public sector employees filed a lawsuit on Sept. 30 against OMB for threatening RIFs and against the Office of Personnel Management for issuing instructions that federal employees will be allowed to work during the shutdown if they are needed to carry out RIFs.

None of the updated shutdown plans from science agencies mention RIFs, even though most of them were published online after the memo was sent. NSF and NASA do note the number of staff who will depart through the deferred resignation program: 340 at NSF, between deferred resignations and voluntary early retirements, and 306 at NASA. Even without additional efforts to reduce the workforce, agencies such as NASA have shed employees during previous shutdowns.

The most recent shutdown lasted 35 days before Congress passed a three-week funding agreement, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history. The longer the shutdown, the more likely federal contractors are to run out of funding, which can impact federally funded R&D centers and other contractor-operated research facilities. Some, but not all, contractors received back pay after the 2019 shutdown. The White House has indicated that it will not necessarily support back pay for federal workers this time around.

Trump offers funding advantage deal to small group of universities

The Trump administration sent a proposal to nine universities in early October asking them to adopt certain conservative priorities in exchange for priority access to federal grants, looser restraints on overhead costs, invitations to White House events, and conversations with administration officials.

Signatories to the 10-page “compact” would commit to maintaining “institutional neutrality” at all levels, ensuring university employees abstain from political speech, and recognizing that “academic freedom is not absolute.” The compact requires signatories to conduct surveys of “viewpoints among faculty, students, and staff at all levels” and publicly publish the results.

Signatories would be required to cap international enrollment at 15% for undergraduates, with no more than 5% from a single country. They would also freeze tuition for five years, with free tuition awarded to students in “hard science” programs at institutions with endowments exceeding $2 million per undergraduate student. The compact prohibits signatories from considering gender, race, or political ideology in admissions, and it requires institutions to provide single-sex spaces for women and strictly define sex and gender according to “reproductive function and biological processes.”

The compact has drawn criticism from Democrats, with California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening to pull state funding from any California institution that signs the agreement.

Some universities have already pushed back. MIT’s president sent a letter to the administration stating that the school would not sign because “the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.” Faculty groups at other schools have urged their leadership to reject the proposal. Kevin Eltife, chairman of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, reportedly said he was “honored” that the system’s flagship school was selected for potential funding advantages.