The four paths forward for US scientists in 2026
The four paths forward for US scientists in 2026
For nearly 100 years, the United States has been the world's leader in a wide variety of scientific fields. No other country has:
- invested as much in fundamental scientific research,
- made more scientific breakthroughs and scientific advances,
- attracted more scientific researchers to move there to conduct their research,
- or has conducted more projects and been home to more scientists that have won Nobel Prizes.
From public health to food safety to clean air and water to vaccines to dental health to disease eradication and pandemic prevention, the United States was the world leader. From rocketry to space exploration to planetary science to astrophysics, heliophysics, and Earth monitoring, the United States' standing in the world was unparalleled. From education to energy, from chemistry to biology, and from environmental science to medical breakthroughs, no other country came close.
And yet, this past year — 2025 — has seen much of that scientific legacy dismantled. Facilities and libraries have been closed. Thousands of our best and brightest scientists have had their government positions eliminated. Projects have been canceled and/or defunded. Even entire governmental departments and organizations have been terminated, including the Department of Education and HEPAP: the high-energy physics advisory panel.
Scientists and non-scientists alike have fought back with great vigor against these cuts, and a newly agreed-upon congressional budget promises to restore key levels of funding to several organizations, including NASA's science mission directorate and the National Science Foundation. It's vital that we keep fighting for a solid scientific foundation (and future) within the United States, but that alone won't lead us to the future we need. Here are the four key paths forward for US science and scientists: not only here in 2026, but beyond as well.
1. Keep fighting for the continued funding of our current-and-future projects and scientists.
In 2025, there were an enormous number of projects, agencies, and scientists that had their funding and positions cut, withdrawn, or eliminated entirely. NASA's Science Mission Directorate saw the largest funding cut in its history proposed in 2025, threatening to close out, cancel, or otherwise eliminate many of the most ambitious opportunities for 21st-century science in the entire world.
2. Plan a contingency in the event that the US Government suddenly rips out the rug from under you.
As 2025 definitively proved, the US government might, at any moment, cut off already-appropriated funding for your project, reorganize and eliminate the overarching, governing structure for your project or career, revoke the visas of any international scholars participating in your project, or much, much worse. The track record from 2025 shows that everyone from agency heads down to early career scientists faced termination, irrespective of the merits of either their project or their own actual work.
3. Attempt to salvage-and-save the projects, careers, and opportunities that have already been terminated here in the US.
Whether funded by private donors, philanthropists, research consortiums, or other nation-states — all of which are options for funding that should seriously be considered — just because the United States has pulled the plug on many projects of high scientific merit and high value to humanity doesn't mean that they need to be lost entirely.
4. Work on a long-term plan to rebuild American science after the destruction has ceased, and to rebuild it in a way that will be resilient against the whims of any one political administration or party.
Someday, no matter how impossible it may seem at present, the current storm will be over. Whatever remains of American science, whether it's something comparable to what still exists today or something much less, will be ready to be rebuilt.
