‘Complete devastation’: How NSF gutted its social sciences research | Science | AAAS
Social scientists in the United States have known for months that their main source of research funding was threatened, but were unsure how dire the situation was. With the end of the 2026 fiscal year on 30 September, the extent of the damage is now becoming clear. “For entire disciplines, this is existential,” says Wendy Naus, head of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, a nonprofit representing social scientists. In March, the White House’s budget request for fiscal year 2027 called for eliminating the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE), which funds roughly two-thirds of the country’s academic social science research, such as sociology, linguistics, and archaeology. Whether Congress will approve the request is unclear, but NSF is not waiting. Interviews with five recently departed SBE staff and newly available data document how the agency has quietly followed through on administration orders by slashing