The light of our latest blog series is on how our community members are being affected by recent government funding and policy changes, and the US economic impact and the reduction of investment in science continues to see the loss of production. Read the previous post on how the changes are affecting the early career scientists and closing the door to the American dream for many people here.
Scientific Research is one of the most powerful drivers of the US economy, and with every dollar investment, its return is $ 2.461. It fuel innovation, seeds new industries, trains future workforce, and solves immediate challenges from public health crises to climate change.
In recent years, Federal Investment (R&D) in research and development has failed to maintain harmony with inflation, scientific requirements and international rivals. Now, a new budget proposal also calls for deep cuts. Key sectors such as cancer research, rare diseases, and mental health treatment suffer a disastrous deficiency. National Academies have warned that such “amazing” cuts will force the closure of entire research centers and significantly shrink the US scientific workforce.2.
The long -term effects of such integration are not just ideological, they are already coming out in real time.
A GSA member, who is now leading the beginning of science, explains the truth from the front lines: “Whoever works under the deception that the government science grant will not affect the economic growth of the United States.”
Although no longer in academia, it represents the CEO from Graduate School to Entrepreneurship. Startups like them depend on early -stage public investment to endanger their technologies, many of which have begun at university labs, which support the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the USDA grant. “The government is the basic mechanism that uses startups to secure preliminary funds,” he explained. “Outside government, there are very few alternative funding sources for early -phase companies that require R&D work. And now, they are disappearing public sources.”
The entire innovation economy of federal funding has been frozen
Consider this: A 2023 report of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation states that a public financial -powered basic research increased $ 1.00 to $ 8.38 after the industry research and development investment after 8 years. Academic labs, new drug discoveries, agricultural innovations, and startups are the flow of basic science starting beyond clean energy technologies.
When funding disappears, these are not just university researchers who are affected. It is the entire national ecosystem. The CEO said, “In my company, we are seriously discussing the acquisition of funds outside the United States because we do not want, but because domestic public funds have all disappeared.” “There are no funds to support early -stage science startups in the United States.” This loss will invalidate US jobs, industries and intellectual property.
What else makes this situation include garbage. The US government already invests a lot of training to scientists, yet without the continuous financing of research, these highly trained people are being excluded from the system. The CEO said, “Every unemployed scientist, every scientist who stops working somewhere else, is our government throwing 500KA pop.” “It is heartbreaking to see your friends and colleagues unemployed. It has been an unimaginable pressure, eliminating future career opportunities in science.”
Compound
When the United States loses scientists, it just does not lose its discoveries – it loses future teachers, teachers and founders. It eliminates public confidence in science career and discourages the next generation from coming into the field. And these changes overcome the long -term national competition at a time when other countries like China are dramatically increasing their R&D investment.
The National Academy has been alarming for years. In response to the Trump era budget proposal in 2017, it was stated that the reduction in federal science financing would “surpass us generations.”
Financial support to save money is not a smart economic move. It sacrifices long -term prosperity for short -term savings. It is a choice that threatens both health and economic security. A member of the scientific community explained, “Science financing to save money is like drinking arsenic to treat mental cancer – not only will it not work, it will kill you faster.”
If the United States wants to be a global leader in innovation and take advantage of its economic investment economic rewards, it will have to re -consider a permanent, forecast funds for research. Science is not a price, it is the capital and without it, economic growth stops.
At the end of the day, these policy changes are leading to a decline in the priority of US development in science and public health. We will continue to look at a vicious cycle of economic loss, decrease in young manpower, have less investment in the United States standing globally in terms of research and development and scientific enterprises and manpower. Since we continue to collect stories from community members who are trying to navigate these new policy changes, we are dedicated to distributing them to the community and a safe place to share our concerns in future blog posts.
We urge you to keep calling our elected officials and share the short -term and large -scale effects of these government decisions. If you have been affected by these problems and you will be willing to share your experience in anonymity, we want to hear from you. Your voice is important. Submit your story through it Private form.
