Update. The #OpenAccess Biodiversity Heritage Library (#BHL) needs a new home. The #Smithsonian will stop hosting it next January.
https://blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/2025/04/new-future-for-bhl.html

Update. "The federal Department of Education [#ED] maintains an open access database of more than 2 million documents [Education Resources Information Center, #ERIC] dating back to the 1960s. It will cease operating Wednesday due to #DOGE cuts."
https://www.governing.com/policy/major-education-resource-set-to-shut-down-this-week

PS: I use many sources in my attempt to stay on top of what's happening with #OpenAccess, #OpenScience, #OpenEducation, and so on. ERIC has been one of the stalwarts.

Update. "National Science Foundation Terminates Hundreds of Active Research Awards"
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/science/trump-national-science-foundation-grants.html

"In January, the #Trump administration attempted to freeze grant payments for existing awards at the #NSF. A temporary restraining order lifted the freeze. The order also said that the agency could not terminate active awards to comply with President Trump’s executive orders…In a statement on Friday, the NSF said that its grant cancellations were not in violation of the temporary restraining order. When asked by The Times to provide clarification on the legality of the grant cancellations, the agency declined to comment…On Friday, the NSF went further, canceling grants supporting ongoing research."

Update. "How #Trump is following #Project2025’s radical roadmap to defund science."
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00780-2

"Indiscriminate firings. Terminated grants. Cancelled programmes. The barrage of actions by US President Donald Trump has shocked the country’s research community over the past two months. Yet, much of it was planned out years in advance and laid out publicly…The Wall Street Journal found that more than half of Trump’s executive orders (EOs) align with Project 2025 recommendations. And most of its 40 listed authors are now key figures on Trump’s team…Here, Nature examines science-related policies from Project 2025 that have already come to pass, and which ones might be on the horizon."

Update. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (#NOAA) maintains a public list of datasets and databases it's terminating.
https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/about/documents-reports/notice-of-changes

Transparency about pulling the plug on transparency.

Update. "Over 150 US university presidents sign letter decrying #Trump administration"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/21/us-university-presidents-trump-administration

"More than 150 presidents of US colleges and universities have signed a statement denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with higher education – the strongest sign yet that US educational institutions are forming a unified front against the government’s extraordinary attack on their independence. The statement, published early on Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, comes weeks into the administration’s mounting campaign against higher education, and hours after Harvard University became the first school to sue the government over threats to its funding."

The letter itself:
https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement

EDIT. As of April 23, 2025, the tally of signatures is up to 320.

#AACU #Academia #DefendResearch #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. "#NIH freezes funds to #Harvard and four other universities, but can’t tell them."
https://www.science.org/content/article/nih-freezes-funds-harvard-and-four-other-universities-can-t-tell-them
(#paywalled)

"After freezing all grants to #Columbia University last week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now stopping grant and contract payments to Harvard University and four other universities [#Brown, #Northwestern, #Cornell, #WeillCornell Medical School]…The move will both block new funding and halt payments to investigators currently working on NIH projects…The Department of Health and Human Services (#HHS)…instructed NIH staff not to provide any communication to these institutions or to Columbia about whether the funds are frozen or why, according to the email."

#Academia #DefendResearch #Funding #Trump #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. "Trump’s #DOJ Sends Intimidating Letters to Medical #Journals for Supposedly Being ‘Partisan’ "
https://gizmodo.com/trumps-doj-sends-intimidating-letters-to-medical-journals-for-supposedly-being-partisan-2000591550

"The U.S. Department of Justice has sent letters to medical journals for supposedly being “partisan,” heavily suggesting that they’re spreading misinformation and are influenced by “funders” rather than medical science. Gizmodo has confirmed that the journal CHEST, a peer-reviewed publication on pulmonary care published by the American College of Chest Physicians, received a letter this week. And MedPage Today reports that at least two other journals have received similar intimidating letters."

PS: The letter to Harvard shows that the Trump admin wants to control what universities teach. These letters show that it also wants to control what scholarly journals publish.

Update. "U.S. climate data websites go dark"
https://www.science.org/content/article/us-climate-data-websites-go-dark

"U.S. scientists, state policymakers, farmers, and others who depend on up-to-date #climate data on Thursday confronted an information blackout from federal regional climate centers across much of the country. “Unfortunately, all data and services offered under the base contract, including this website, will be unavailable unless and until funding is resumed,” a statement on the Southern Regional Climate Center’s website read…The disruption appears to be a temporary paperwork bottleneck within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (#NOAA), rather than a policy decision by agency leadership, officials at several of the centers say. The centers are managed by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. But they are housed chiefly at #universities operating under 5-year agreements. The contracts for payment are approved each year. The last annual cycle ended on 16 April."

Update. "Trump team freezes new NSF awards — and could soon axe hundreds of grants"
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01263-0

"All new research grants have been frozen at the US National Science Foundation (#NSF) — an action apparently ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (#DOGE)… Documents seen by Nature show that two members of DOGE…have been given access to grant management systems and used that access to prevent grants from receiving funding that were already approved but awaiting finalization. 'That, of course, raises the hairs on the back of our neck in a worrisome way,' an NSF programme officer says."

Update. "Trump’s War on Measurement Means Losing Data on Drug Use, Maternal Mortality, Climate Change and More"
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-data-collection-hhs-epa-cdc-maternal-mortality

"The data collection efforts that have been shut down or are at risk of being curtailed are staggering in their breadth. In some cases, datasets from past years now sit orphaned, their caretakers banished and their future uncertain; in others, past data has vanished for the time being, and it’s unclear if and when it will reappear. Here are just a few examples."

PS: What follows is one of the best lists of deleted or endangered datasets so far published.

Update. "With the recent announcement that numerous datasets — such as those from #NOAA — are scheduled for decommissioning in May, #PANGAEA has opened its archive to help safeguard these valuable resources. If you become aware of any endangered datasets, please don't hesitate to contact us. PANGAEA data!"
https://pangaea.de/

Update. Bad news from the #NEH for #KnowledgeCommons (and the rest of us).
https://about.hcommons.org/2025/04/17/on-the-neh-and-our-path-forward/

"On April 2, 2025, we received notification that our NEH Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant, awarded in 2020, was terminated effective immediately…On April 10, 2025, we received further…notification that our contract to provide the NEH’s Designated Public-Access #Repository was also being terminated…This loss is devastating…both for the financial impact it represents…but also for the unceremonious end to a goal we’d set for ourselves years ago…Not to mention the bigger picture here: that designated public-access repository is no longer needed, because it is assumed that the NEH will no longer be funding research, and thus there will be no results of research to make publicly accessible."

PS: All the agencies covered by the #OSTP #NelsonMemo must designate #OpenAccess repositories for their OA content. NEH was the only agency to designate a repo not hosted by the govt. All the other agency repos will be hosted by the govt, where they will be subject to political censorship or takedowns.

Update. "Faculty From 14 Universities Join Forces to Call on Administrative Bodies to Stand Up to Attacks on Higher Education"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hFz55-UB17Q4dQpC-Zz6YNBaYWfQF87ilfiK5avWXEQ/edit?tab=t.0

"Faculty from fourteen universities across the United States signed and released letters calling for their respective university’s administrative bodies to stand up to the Trump administration’s attacks on academic freedom, freedom of inquiry, and other democratic principles. Nearly 5,100 faculty have collectively signed these letters on what the American Association of University Professors has called a Day of Action for Higher Ed. This is a collaborative effort independently organized by passionate faculty across four universities… Following the extraordinary sign of leadership from Harvard University on April 14, 2025, these faculty are speaking out to encourage their own institutions to stand up and fight back collectively against the illegal and unprecedented actions of the federal government."

#Academia #Censorship #DefendResearch #Trump #Universities #USPol #USPolitics
@academicchatter

Update. "The #Trump administration’s cuts have slowed operations in #Antarctica to a crawl. Scientists warn that #climate research conducted there is vitally urgent. Despite this, the #NSF is preparing for an operational retreat from Antarctica."
https://explorersweb.com/new-funding-cuts-forcing-u-s-researchers-out-of-antarctica/

PS: This one is more personal for me. In 1996 I visited Palmer Station, an NSF-funded base for polar biology on Anvers Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, and had a wonderful talk and tour with its director, Polly Penhale.