The Trump administration is stepping up its attack on the National Science Foundation, which is a major funder of basic science, mathematics and engineering, especially among universities and universities across the country.

The latest Salvo: Preliminary budget request The White House will cut $4.7 billion, or more than half of the agency's $9 billion budget.

The proposal made on the same day by the NSF said that according to an email from NPR, the NSF said 344 previously approved grants had been terminated because they "difference to the agency's priorities." This is after two waves of cancellations before April, ending more than a thousand awards.

More importantly, the agency now has Stopped Issue any new awards and cease funding all existing awards, Journal of Science nature explain. A spokesperson for the NSF asked about the report and declined to comment.

Amid all this turmoil, NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan suddenly left last week, explain “I believe I have tried my best.”

Eliminating most of the agency's budget will be "a crisis, just a disaster for American science." Sudip ParikhCEO of the American Association for Scientific Development, one of the largest scientific societies in the world.

He is optimistic about whether Congress will be with it, but the budgeting process may take several months.

Meanwhile, uncertainty will cause scientists to worry about how to support their labs and students and early researchers working there.

"This creates paralysis that I think has hurt us," Parikh said, and when he talks with scientists he began to hear them expressing interest in developing "a exit plan from these jobs."

Mariana Zhanga New York University cognitive scientist who studies how children form stereotypes and how to reduce them, said she learned that she canceled her two-year scholarship in an email from the NSF, saying she misspelled the term "priority." It said her work no longer serves these priorities.

"I'm just numb," she said, explaining that she received an email while driving to a science conference and read it out. "It's shocking. I cried, on the side of the road."

“Wider and weird”

Some grants initially cancelled involves diversity, fairness and inclusion, or research on misinformation or false information. These two types of studies were previously targeted by Republicans in Congress, such as Jim Jordan and Ted Cruz.

But the cancellation did not stop there.

“As it goes on, you’ll see its coverage get wider and weird.” Noam Rossexecutive director of a nonprofit called Ropensci, started a database so that people can self-report the cancellation of their grants.

"Just take a look and there will be a meeting on geometry and topology," Ross said. "Why was it canceled, right?"

He noted that the grant to hold the meeting may have mentioned scholarships for students in underrepresented communities. In the past, many NSF-funded researchers were encouraged to explain how their work would promote scientific participation.

Many cancelled grants focus on education, especially in small, medium, rural or minority colleges.

Get previous NSF funding Rust belt RNA conferenceFor example. “We really emphasized the students.” Charles Hoogstraten Michigan State University noted that the NSF has funded it for many years. “The vast majority of our negotiations and most of our posters are provided by students.”

Hoogstraten said that for many poor students who can’t afford to travel, this is one of their only opportunities to attend advanced science conferences. He and his colleagues are trying to figure out what to do if they cut funds.

Amy HagenA PhD student at Virginia Tech, who wanted to provide NSF funding for geological work, and what she wanted to do was date some of the Cambrian rocks.

“I applied, I was awarded a grant on Thursday and then cancelled on Friday,” she said.

The uncertainty is getting bigger

Katherine JohnsonGeochemists at the UCI Climate Justice Initiative say their NSF grants are about $1.5 million a year and work to make the geoscience more diverse and inclusive. Now, they face the possibility of staff being fired and scramble to figure out how to support students this summer.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “It’s really stressful.”

Asked about the impact of all these cancellations on American scientists, a NSF spokesperson said, “NSF declined to comment.”

The White House said on the 2026 budget requirement that “cuts: climate; clean energy; awakening society, behavioral and economic science; and plans in low-priority areas of science.”

"The funding for artificial intelligence and quantum information science research remains at current levels," it said.

However, with little explanation, the sudden termination of the grant means that all scientists felt the impact.

“Even people who have not been cancelled or terminated are worried that they will be terminated,” he said.

Zhang from New York University said she began to doubt whether her future science career would have to move to the United States.

"It's horrible, what happened," she said. "I think it's also keeping my faith going on in the short term, and in the long term."