The slowed pace of grants by the National Science Foundation, under attack from the White House, could put the United States at a disadvantage with China, the scientists warned.
More than 2,500 scientists said in a letter to Congress on Monday that President Trump’s dismissal of the National Science Foundation’s oversight board was an “alarming attack” on research funding that could put the United States at a disadvantage with rivals, especially China.
“We stand with the National Science Board, and call on Congress, as an equal branch of government, to rapidly and firmly support science by calling for the reinstatement of terminated National Science Board members,” the signatories wrote.
In a separate letter last month, more than a dozen former leaders of the foundation urged the White House and Congress to quickly fill the leadership vacuum President Trump created at the agency. Established in 1950, the agency has been responsible for annually distributing about $9 billion in research grants in recent years. That money funds much of the public science research in the United States, from artificial intelligence to astronomy.
The former board members have been trying to call attention to what they say is a growing research funding gap with China. Last week, the N.S.F. published the board’s 2026 report on the state of U.S. science and engineering, which the board had finalized before its dismissal. In the report, the board warned China had overtaken the United States in research and development expenditures.
That gap is likely to grow as science funding under the Trump administration is at a low point.
As of May 1, the agency has committed 10 percent of its congressionally appropriated funds, roughly half of what the foundation had awarded by this point in previous fiscal years, according to Grant Witness, which tracks scientific grants.
A White House spokesman justified the decision to fire the board by pointing to a 2021 Supreme Court decision about the governance structure at another government agency. The spokesman added that the N.S.F. was delivering on Mr. Trump’s pledge to cement America’s technological and innovative dominance.