How did Trump’s first day affect the world of science?

According to RCO News Agency, The Trump administration fired thousands of employees in US academic agencies at an unprecedented speed and announced reforms to the standards of research aid that could greatly reduce federal financial support for science. This decline is part of a larger effort to drastically reduce government spending and reduce its labor force.

Although US courts have intervened in some cases, Republicans in both chambers of the US Congress, which largely prevented Trump’s efforts to reduce his scientific budget during his first presidential term from year 2 to 5, are mainly in accordance with the order of the order. Trump’s work has moved. For many researchers, the first month of Trump’s activity shows the renovation of priorities that can affect science and society for decades in the coming decades.

“These are” unprecedented “,” said Harold Varmus, a former director of the US National Institute of Health (NIH), now a cancer researcher at the Will Cornell Medical School in New York City. No one has never seen a transition in which one of our most valuable sectors of our government investment is destroyed.

Nature Magazine has examined the quick actions of the Trump Group in science so far and has spoken to political observers about what will happen in the future.

Fast and violent

A review in the US scientific sector began hours after Trump’s inauguration on January 6, when he signed dozens of executive orders, with the president’s instructions on how the government works within the framework of existing laws.

Some of these orders, including the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in 2008, were anticipated to contain the world of global greenhouse gas emissions and end its membership in the World Health Organization. Other these commands had astonishing and urgent effects on the scientific community.

One of the executive decrees was the ban on “diversity, equality and inclusion” programs that Trump considers “illegal and immoral discrimination programs. According to an email that has been sent to government employees, any federal employee who does not report his colleagues who disobey the instructions on “diversity, equality and inclusion” will face “consequences”. Many scientists and agencies began to end “diversity, equality and inclusion” programs, including efforts to environmental justice that programs aimed at protecting low -income societies against pollution and climate change. Kurdish.

Some scientific associations and private research organizations have erased the names of “diversity, equality and scope” from their websites. In one of Trump’s orders, he called for investigations into foundations, non -profit organizations and other private institutions that do not match them.

On January 7, just a week after the new government came to power, the Trump budget office blocked all federal funding and loans, saying it should review government spending to ensure that it is in line with executive orders. There was a lot of chaos, as agencies such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF), both of which are the main investors of basic science, stopped their financial grant payments, making review panels for aid Research financially canceled and stopped communications. A federal judge temporarily blocked the order, but disorders and confusion continue.

A scientist who asked not to be named says the main researchers who lead the research groups are damaged in the environment because their research is funded by several US agencies. They say: Everything is up to us to manage our funding and our group, this is a complete turmoil. I don’t sleep on anxiety.

Cooperation with Ilan Musk

Trump’s unprecedented guidelines began with the flourishing of his partnership with Ilan Musk’s billionaire entrepreneur.

The two are working to reduce federal costs and eliminate agencies such as the US International Development Agency, which is responsible for research, prevention and care for global diseases.

To this end, the Trump administration, which works through the US government’s efficiency ministry, has quickly weakened the federal labor morale, including about 6,000 scientists and engineers. Initially, an email was sent to all federal employees on January 5 and was asked to move from lower productivity in the public sector to higher productivity in the private sector. About 6,000 employees subsequently resigned with the promise that their salaries would be maintained by September, and last week, the expulsion of experimental staff across the US government began, and those who have been involved in their job positions in the last two years. Were particularly impressed.

“I can’t even say how cruel they are,” said a researcher at the National Institute of Health, who lost its laboratory members for job adjustment and demanded not to be named. According to reports, emails were reported to be fired, referring to their poor performance, even for those whose performance was “exceptional” by their supervisors. “They fired some of the best and most intelligent people who have just joined the government,” the researcher says.

Many predict that such instructions will lead to legal challenges. One of the local union officers, a US government employee federation, who represents scientists at the National Science Foundation, says he is evaluating all legal options to investigate the reckless federal employee expulsion.

Meanwhile, the Trump team announced on February 7, expressing a policy for the National Institute of Health, announcing that it would reduce billions of dollars annually for universities, hospitals and other US research institutes, and thus changed biological research. This policy reduces overall research expenditure from an average of about 2 % to a fixed rate of 5 % for research grants. Costs include electricity costs, waste removal and other installation costs as well as administrative costs and are added to the laboratory equipment and researchers’ salaries. The policy is currently suspended and is waiting for the outcome of complaints that claim to be illegal.

Trump’s actions have even raised concern for some US conservatives. Anthony Mills, head of the Center for Technology, Science and Energy at the American Enterprise Institute, says the government should participate in discussions instead of using fear and intimidation. For example, in reforming the National Institute of Health, it should encourage scientists to take more risks. “I am worried that the opportunity to make constructive reforms will be lost in the chaos,” says Mills.

The second month and then

Politics experts who spoke to Nature say there are more things. Many of the policies were implemented in the first month of Trump’s route with the proposals presented in the Project 2, a project organized by the Heritti Foundation. Trump has officially denied the document during his presidential campaign, but many of its writers have now joined his government.

The document also calls for a decline in climate research at the US National Oceanic and Emergency Office and the privatization of many meteorological services provided by US National Meteorological Services. The project also says that the US Department of Energy should stop investing in clean energy technologies and focus on basic science instead. In this document, quantum and artificial intelligence sciences are examples of this type of science.

A further decline in federal labor is likely to be on the way. Project 2 calls for a review of civil service laws, consisting of government employees, including scientists who have been hired by expertise. Reportedly, the Trump administration is formulating regulations that could make it easier for many of these employees.

The widespread budget reduction for scientific agencies is also likely to be ahead. Final negotiations on this year’s budget at the Republican Congress are underway, and the new budget process will begin soon for year 2. The question is, how much the budget is reduced? “Everything is possible,” says Jennifer Zeitzer, who is headed by the Public Affairs of the American Association for Experimental Biology in Rockville, Maryland.

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