Gene editing, mRNA technology for developing vaccines and cognitive behavioral therapy rank among the most recognized scientific discoveries of the past 75 years.
Though separated by space and time, they all rest upon the same keystone: the University of Pennsylvania’s $2 billion research and development program.
Taxpayer-funded federal grants and contracts cover the bulk of the price tag, including $245 million on more than 170 projects during the past five years alone, leaving many insiders concerned about the impact of the Trump administration’s nationwide $1.5 billion cut to academic research funding going forward.
“I think we’re all going to feel the impacts of these cuts for a long time,” said Dr. Julie Margetta Morgan, president of the progressive think tank The Century Foundation, during a June 4 congressional hearing on Capitol Hill about tuition pricing at Ivy League universities. “We’re not going to be developing the drugs that make us safer and healthier in this country. We’re not going to be developing the innovations that help keep us competitive in power manufacturing within our country. So, it’s going to have a really big impact on us as a whole.”
Not everyone agrees with that, however. Dr. J. Scott Turner, director of the Diversity in the Sciences Project of the National Association of Scholars, told The Center Square that analyses of federal grant funding show that allocations have doubled in support roughly every seven years since 1950, when federal dollars began overshadowing philanthropic donations.
Theoretically, Turner said, the anticipated cuts mean researchers would be working with the same level of taxpayer funding doled out in 2017, or $32.4 billion, according to data from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. In 2023, that number hit $49 billion, or about twice what the government spent in 2002. However, half of that additional spending occurred during the last six years alone, in part due to a large pandemic-era stimulus under former President Joe Biden via the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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