This will get downvoted to oblivion, but it's not obvious to me this shakeup is a bad thing.

Some thoughts: 1. US Spending on R&D has gone up from $50B -> $1T annually, and from $3B -> $115B on purchasing power terms 2. The labs rely on government grants, which are hard to get and typically awarded 'equally' or 'by gatekeepers' 3. There is and have been massive scandals that question academic integrity - reproducibility, fake data. The scientific community has done almost nothing to change its mechanisms. 4. It's not clear to me what we've 'got' societally from these studies as a whole 5. The administrative burden to even do science has gotten too far out of hand 6. You can't 'fire' researchers

Research and science is a fundamentally 'good' thing; we should encourage it.

We may need to shake up the way that it's done. Yes science + R&D is long term focused, but it doesn't mean it can't be reformed.

That the article centers on hand-wringing over 'my government grant is gone!' instead of 'you're cutting this critical research that will save lives' without any discussion of 'science' needing to reform unfortunately highlights the core of the problem.

I think the core of the problem is a profound disrespect for the rule of law and competent leadership in this administration. This is an administration that does not believe in competence because it has never experienced it. It doesn't believe in laws because it thinks everyone is as corrupt and wicked as they are themselves. It doesn't believe in science because science doesn't produce evidence for the facts they've chosen to believe in.

To clarify - CORPORATE R&D is up to $1T, while academic R&D is $115B