Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, he and his team have wasted little time implementing new policies to drastically shape the country over the next four years.
One area in particular the administration has gone after is the sciences. The administration has drastically cut government spending by halting massive amounts of grant money as well as cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in those grants.
At the time of this writing, the Trump administration has frozen grant reviewing panels and slashed funding to the National Institute of Health (NIH), temporarily blocked those with grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) from accessing funds to conduct projects and pay employees and established an ideological shift, preventing the funding of research grants containing any aspect of DEI in their language or goals.
While some of these initiatives have been blocked or challenged by federal judges, it’s clear that scientific research is currently under fire in the United States. These changes affect colleges, universities and institutions both big and small. The University of Missouri–St. Louis (UMSL) is no exception.
But before diving any further into how this affects UMSL, it’s important to explain grants and the grant process in relation to science.
Grants Explained
Grants are sums of money paid to individuals or institutions to carry out a research project. They are usually tax-free and cover expenses related to research, including equipment, travel, and salaries. Grants have what are called “direct costs” and “indirect costs”. Direct costs support students, pay for publishing the work, and presenting at conferences. Indirect costs support facility maintenance and upkeep.
Grants are the lifeblood for science research at places like UMSL. They provide swaths of money that allow professors to conduct projects whose results advance their field. But these results not only add to the collective body of knowledge, but also improve the world through fields like medicine, the environment, and engineering.
Many professors here at UMSL hold federal grants. To name a few, Aimee Dunlap from biology has a United State Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant to research bees in urban orchards, Lon Chubiz from biology has an NSF grant studying drought and forest fires, Michael Nichols from chemistry has an NIH grant for researching brain inflammation in relation to Alzheimer’s and Kimberly Werner from psychology has a grant from the Department of Justice researching gender based violence.
In speaking with several science faculty about the new changes, including Michi Tobler in biology, Sonya Bahar and Erika Gibb from physics, and Keith Stine from chemistry, the common word for current events was “uncertainty.” They reported a palpable sense of worry, angst or confusion. But they also noted impacts on graduate students, undergraduate students, those from diverse backgrounds and science at large.
Effects on Graduate Students
Tobler, a biology professor who works closely with the St. Louis Zoo, and employs many students through NSF grants said, “The biggest impact so far has been that there’s uncertainty, right? And this doesn’t sound so bad, but we’re in the midst of graduate student recruitment and making decisions on who we’re admitting and not knowing, you know, how these funds will be affected because there’s just conflict in communication that’s happened over the weeks. Not knowing really makes the decision-making process difficult.”
This uncertainty with prospective science graduate students at UMSL reflects a larger U.S. trend of schools cutting off Ph.D. admissions because of grant funding cuts. Because of these cuts, there aren’t direct costs coming in from grants to support new graduate students, leaving professors without new scientists to train.
Effects on Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate students will likely feel the effects as well if they want to get research experience for the job market. Bahar, a biophysics professor and director of the Center for Neurodynamics, noted many undergrads at UMSL are paid through grant money.
“We have a lot of students who are undergraduate students who are paid from federal grants. And a lot of those students I mean they’re being paid like $18.00 an hour, and they’re depending on that as their part-time job and they’re depending on that to pay their rent,” Bahar said.
As UMSL is a commuter school, made up of non-traditional students who balance work and classes, gaining research experience is challenging as it is often unpaid. Paid research positions provide opportunities to get research experience while paying their bills. However, if grant funding is cut, undergraduates wanting to get paid research experience lose out. Moreover, professors lose out on more personnel to conduct research.
Effects on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The Trump administration has also cracked down on DEI language in research grants to prevent projects for underrepresented groups. This prevents institutions from recruiting those from minority backgrounds or even conducting studies in relation to underrepresented groups.
“Everyone’s going to be tiptoeing around trying to make sure that they don’t anger someone who’s going to cut their funding, but on the other hand not tiptoeing around is the only way to fight back basically … As an advisor, as a mentor, what do you do for young women in science, people of color in science and trans people in science?” said Bahar.
But research grants aren’t the only place that could see changes at UMSL; organizations centered around diversity in science, as explained by Chemistry Department Chair Stine, might be in the crosshairs as well.
“UMSL is also a member of what’s called the Louis Stokes Alliance for minority participation from NSF, and I know that that’s aimed at students in STEM areas from underrepresented groups. They’re undergraduates that could be participating in this alliance or in other programs similar to that, and I’m not entirely sure to what extent they’re aware of what might happen, and I think it would be very bad, clearly very bad if they’re activities that they’re benefiting from ended up having to be curtailed,” he said.
Broader Impacts on Science at Large
With the current trajectory of the Trump administration likely to continue over the next few years, science at institutions like UMSL may face even bigger problems. The heavy funding cuts for grants, DEI or otherwise, means there isn’t money to do the work. Gibb, a faculty member in the physics department researching astronomy and astrophysics, highlights larger, generational effects.
“You know, if science gets dramatically cut in this country, it’s going to mean there are a lot of people who can’t do the work that they do. And I think of longer term concern for someone like me, I wouldn’t be able to train the next generation of scientists to do work. I think it’s going to scare a lot of students away from some fields probably,” Gibb said.
Tobler also weighed in on the lack of indirect costs from grants that may lead universities to close their research programs. “You can imagine what happens to universities’ ability to upkeep research infrastructure, and I think the long-term consequence would be that some universities will simply not be able to do research anymore, or not do it at a level that it actually makes financial sense.”
Ultimately, science at UMSL will be entering uncharted waters over the coming years. But, according to Gibb, despite the uncertainty, the research has to continue.
“I think that’s the biggest source of angst right now it’s just not knowing what’s going to happen, and not really having guidance on how to proceed, so right now what we’ve been told by the university is to just keep asking, keep proposing, keep doing what we’re doing and see what happens,” Gibb said.
On March 7, more than 130 organizations participated in Stand Up for Science demonstrations to defend science programs and oppose the administration’s policy changes. UMSL’s rally brought more than 40 people who, with handmade signs, peacefully walked through campus to show their support for continuing scientific research and development.
