US tells MIT & others: Scientists can help beat China more than universities
The Trump administration is shifting federal R&D funding away from large universities like MIT and Harvard toward individual scientists. The policy aims to accelerate technological discovery and maintain US competitiveness against China in the AI sector.
Why it matters
This represents a major structural change in how the US government allocates its $200 billion annual research budget, potentially disrupting the traditional academic funding model.
The US government plans to give money to individual scientists directly, instead of large universities and established institutions like Harvard, Stanford and MIT for science and research, especially in the AI era. The Trump administration has sent a memo to federal departments and agencies, outlining the roadmap to revitalize American research and development (R&D). According to a White House press release, the overhaul plan was laid out in a report titled ‘Science: A New Golden Age’ published by Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Michael Kratsios. The directives will help shape a roughly $200 billion annual federal research and development budget across the government for the rest of President Donald Trump’s second term.In both report and memo, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy argues that individual scientists can accelerate technological discovery to defeat China.
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