In spring 2024, I authored a Cardinal News opinion piece highlighting the 8% and 0.8% funding cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH), respectively. At the time, those cuts were jarring as they came in sharp contrast to the recent decades-long trend of increasing the federal investment in science and technology, which usually garnered broad bipartisan support. Unfortunately, in what is seemingly becoming an annual tradition, the NSF and NIH budgets are once again on the chopping block, though the proposed cuts this time are far more draconian than the aforementioned budget reductions signed into the fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget.
On Friday, May 2, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) penned a letter to appropriations chair Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, with the president’s recommendations on the FY26 budget. Included in those recommendations are a $4.7 billion (>50%) reduction in the NSF budget and a $17.9 billion (~40%) reduction in the NIH budget.
I’ll reiterate the point I made at this time last year: a reduction in the federal science budget is not just a problem for Washington, and it is important to understand that reductions in the NSF and NIH budgets are more than just points of debate on Capitol Hill. If these budget cuts come to fruition, they would likely do so at a devastating cost to Virginia’s economy.
Just look at the numbers. In FY24, the combined NSF and NIH funds awarded to Virginia totaled just shy of $1 billion. These funds are critical not only for funding research at institutions of higher education but also for driving economic development (through the SBIR/STTR programs), shoring up the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) workforce and ensuring national security by ensuring our technical prowess in an increasingly technological world.
A recent United for Medical Research report found that every dollar of federal investment in scientific research funding generates $2.56 in economic activity. This “multiplier effect,” as it is called, occurs because federal research dollars often trigger follow-on investments from private funders, create new industries and increase productivity across the economy. In other words, federal support of scientific research should be viewed as an investment with a 156% return on investment, not an expense to be tolerated. You must look no further than the economic revitalization of Roanoke over the past two decades to see the economic activity spurred by federal science funding in action.
As a country, we must shift our perspective on federal investment in science. Rather than viewing a budget dedicated to scientific research as an expense to be minimized, we must recognize it as the high-yield investment in our collective future that it is.
As Virginians, we have a vested interest in protecting these vital investments. Our universities, startups and established companies all rely on this funding to drive innovation that directly benefits our communities. As constituents, we’re responsible for reminding our elected representatives of the significant impact science funding has on our community and our economy. In an increasingly global landscape, cutting our research capabilities isn’t fiscal responsibility — it’s mortgaging our future prosperity for short-term budget considerations.
Ryan King’s views are his own and do not necessarily represent those of his employer.
