US science risks a “mortal blow” if the Trump administration proceeds with plans to impose tighter political control over federal research grants, the head of one of the world’s leading groups of academic journals has warned.
Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science and former Chancellor of the University of North Carolina, told the FT that draft proposals released last week by the Office of Management and Budget would “subvert the principles that have enabled America to be the leader in science for the last 80 years, predicated on scientific merit always being the final arbiter of what gets funded”.
He called on business and university leaders to speak out against the proposed rules, or else “there’s not going to be a scientific workforce left in this country to carry out work of strategic interest”.