In a pressing appeal to the public, close to 1,900 distinguished U.S. scientists have voiced concerns that actions taken by the Trump administration against the scientific community are putting the nation’s health, economic stability, and security at risk. These scientists, all members of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and including Nobel laureates, have publicly urged the administration to halt its aggressive campaign against U.S. science. The open letter was made public on Monday.
The scientists clarified that they were expressing their personal views, not those of the National Academies or their respective institutions.
Below is the complete text of the letter.
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TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
Science is a cornerstone of daily life. It’s the reason we have smartphones, GPS systems in our cars, and advanced medical treatments. We depend on engineers for safe bridges and reliable air travel. Businesses and farmers turn to scientific and engineering innovations for product development, technological advancements, and accurate weather predictions. Our efforts to safeguard the environment and keep our air, water, and food free from pollutants are all supported by science.
For over eight decades, strategic investments by the U.S. government have bolstered our national research infrastructure, making it a global leader. Alarmingly, the Trump administration is undermining this foundation by slashing research budgets, dismissing thousands of scientists, restricting public access to scientific data, and coercing researchers to modify or drop their studies for ideological reasons.
“The voice of science must not be silenced.”
The signatories of this letter, who are elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, stand as some of the nation’s foremost scientists, engineers, and medical researchers. Despite our varied political stances, we are united in our commitment to defend independent scientific research. We are issuing this urgent plea because we see the U.S. scientific framework being systematically dismantled.
The current administration is cutting funds to scientific agencies, ending grants, defunding labs, and obstructing international scientific collaborations. These budget cuts are causing research institutions to halt important studies, including those on new treatments for diseases, lay off staff, and stop admitting new graduate students, thus jeopardizing the future of scientific innovation.
Moreover, ongoing investigations into over fifty universities by the administration send a worrisome signal. Columbia University, for example, was told that it would lose federal funding unless it conformed to certain disciplinary policies and shut down a specific academic department as dictated by the administration. This destabilization of numerous universities poses a serious threat to higher education and the research conducted therein.
The pursuit of truth—the very essence of scientific inquiry—demands that scientists freely investigate new ideas and report their findings truthfully, free from external influences. Yet, the administration is practicing censorship, undermining this independence by manipulating funding and publication decisions, dictating research reporting, and controlling public access to data and findings. It is also blocking research on topics it finds inconvenient, such as climate change, or research producing unsatisfactory results on issues like vaccine safety or economic indicators.
A culture of fear is taking hold in the research community, with researchers worried about funding cuts or job security, leading them to withdraw their names from studies, abandon research projects, and modify grant proposals to exclude terms flagged by funding agencies, like “climate change.” Although some in the scientific community have spoken out, many remain silent to avoid provoking the administration and risking their funding.
If the U.S. research infrastructure is dismantled, we risk losing our leadership in science. Other nations will pioneer new medical treatments, clean energy technologies, and future innovations. Their citizens will enjoy better health, and their economies will outpace ours in sectors like business, defense, intelligence, and environmental monitoring. The damage to our scientific capabilities could take generations to repair.
We urge the administration to stop its broad attack on U.S. science, and we call on the public to support this cause. Share this statement, contact your congressional representatives, and help your community understand the stakes. The voice of science cannot be silenced. We all benefit from science, and we all stand to lose if the national research framework is destroyed.
The opinions expressed here are solely ours and do not represent those of the National Academies or our affiliated institutions.
Here is a link to the signatories.
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