Final month, President Trump launched additional details regarding his FY26 budget proposal. The proposal contains steep cuts to science and education schemes throughout the federal authorities. Listed below are a number of vital takeaways from the price range request:
Nationwide Institutes of Well being: The proposal contains $27 billion in base funding for the NIH, a nearly 40% decrease from FY25. The doc additionally mandates a 15% cap on amenities and administrative prices and features a plan to consolidate and restructure NIH’s institutes and facilities.
AAU famous in a statement that the proposal “would set us again for many years within the battle towards most cancers and different ailments in addition to in in growing the opposite medical advances and cures that NIH catalyzes.”
Nationwide Science Basis: The proposal contains $3.9 billion in whole funding for the NSF, a 56% lower from FY25. The price range proposal contains an anticipated award funding fee of seven% for aggressive awards. According to Science, “The president’s price range, which requires congressional approval, would ship a crushing blow to the various hundreds of educational researchers who rely on NSF funding.”
NASA: The proposal contains $18.8 billion for NASA and $3.9 billion for NASA Science, a 24% and 47% lower, respectively, from FY25. As Space.com notes, “This might be the largest single-year lower to NASA in historical past, and the 2026 funding could be the company’s lowest since 1961 when adjusted for inflation, in accordance with The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration advocacy group.” The proposal additionally cancels a number of missions throughout NASA Science and eliminates the Workplace of STEM Engagement.
Division of Power: The proposal contains $7.1 billion for the DOE Workplace of Science, a 14% lower from FY25; the request contains $200 million for the Superior Analysis Initiatives Company-Power, a 57% lower from FY25. ARPA-E helps “commercialize high-risk, high-reward vitality applied sciences” and has, over the previous 15 years, supported 1,700 vitality know-how initiatives at firms, labs, and analysis universities across the nation.
Division of Protection: The proposal notes that “a separate doc containing price range estimates for the Division of Protection shall be revealed in June 2025.”
Division of Training: The proposal contains $66.7 billion for ED, a 15.3% lower from FY25. The proposal units the utmost Pell Grant award at $5,710 for the 2026-27 award yr – a $1,685 lower from the present most award. The proposal additionally eliminates funding fully for the Supplemental Academic Alternative Grant (SEOG) program, Federal TRIO applications, and the Graduate Help in Areas of Nationwide Want (GAANN) program; it proposes a $980 million lower to the Federal Work-Examine Program.
As Inside Higher Ed notes, the proposed lower to the Pell Grant award, if enacted, would reverse “greater than a decade of efforts to steadily increase the award, which helps low-income college students attend faculty.”
Agriculture and Meals Analysis Initiative: The proposal contains $405 million for AFRI, a 9% lower from FY25. Housed inside the U.S. Division of Agriculture, AFRI is the nation’s main aggressive grants program supporting analysis and training in meals and agriculture.
Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities: The proposal zeroes out funding for the NEH and requires its elimination. The proposal additionally eliminates the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Companies.
“President Trump’s FY26 price range proposal, if adopted, would destroy America’s longstanding function as the worldwide chief in science and innovation – together with the numerous well being, safety, and financial advantages that movement from that management,” AAU said in a statement, including: “We stay up for working with Congress to develop a FY26 price range that will assist maintain continued American scientific management relatively than destroying it.”
Kritika Agarwal is assistant vp for communications, editorial content material and technique at AAU.
