Another day, another erosion of a cornerstone of the United States’ scientific enterprise.
Between the canceling of billions of research grants deemed “too woke,” the shuttering of all regional forest service offices and 57 of 77 of its research facilities, and the firing of the National science board, you’d be forgiven for missing perhaps the greatest gutting of American science proposed by the Trump Administration yet. After losing in court over grant cancellations, the administration is now attempting to gut science through the standard channel. Last week, the OMB proposed a sweeping change that would shift grants funded by the federal government from being awarded based on peer review to based on political whims.
As a researcher who has worked all over the world, I’ve served on grant panels in various different countries. In that experience, I’ve seen up close how our peer review process is the gold standard that other counties look to when deciding how to evaluate their own grants. This sweeping rule will put us straight to the bottom, alongside corrupt governments and dictatorships, who grant federal research grants on mere whims of fancy, or to sycophants.
The rule also expands the power to cancel grants that have already been awarded on the whims of political appointees at any time for any reason. This rule will crush American science and turn it into another political tool.
Other scientists are the only people qualified to review complex science grant applications. Politicians, most of whom haven’t taken science since high school, are unqualified and utterly lack the depth to make these decisions.
This is an unserious rule with serious consequences for the prosperity of our nation and it’s open for public comment now.
