Restrictions on US academic freedom affect science everywhere

Abstract

Historically, the USA has enjoyed greater academic freedom than many countries, and this has likely contributed to its centrality in global research networks. For years, state-level attacks (such as those by Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida) have undermined academic freedom at single campuses or across public university systems². But under the Trump administration, coordinated attacks on academic freedom are being carried out at the national level and are targeting both public and private universities. The administration has targeted institutional autonomy by threatening large-scale federal funding freezes to specific universities, such as Columbia University, Harvard University and University of Pennsylvania. These attacks on universities and federally funded research undermine the arrangements (such as having university faculty members rather than political appointees review proposals for federal grants) that make the USA a globally competitive producer of scholarly scientific publications. Even private industry works in partnership with universities on basic research. Bibliometric analyses estimate that 85–90% of publications in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, plus health (STEM+) — including those funded by industry contracts — are co-authored by university-based scientists^3,4.

Although new for American higher education, the Trump administration’s approach is similar to policies followed by Cold War autocratic regimes such as East Germany, where research funding was politicized and research production stalled. Much of the world experienced exponential growth in science production during the latter half of the twentieth century. By contrast, East Germany stood out for its decrease in STEM+ research production⁵. When former German Chancellor Angela Merkel reflected on working as a physicist in East Germany before reunification, she described the danger of becoming comfortable with the boundaries imposed by the state, and the benefits — after reunification — of a more open society that pushed you “to your limits” as a scientist. Merkel realized how autocratic rule had badly constrained East German physics research.