From NASA to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Trump’s reform agenda has thrown numerous federal agencies under the microscope and brought the threat of steep budget cuts or, in the worst cases, attempted dismantling. But within the startup and venture capital sector, the fate of one agency in particular—the National Science Foundation—is causing alarm after DOGE turned its attention to it a few weeks ago.
On Friday, the Office of Management and Budget proposed slashing roughly 57% of the NSF’s budget, cutting it from about $9 billion down to $3.9 billion. Shortly before that, on April 24, the director of NSF—a Trump pick during his first term—resigned, and NSF staffers received memos encouraging them to consider deferred resignation and early retirement programs, and notifying them that NSF would no longer process supplements to any existing grant awards for the remainder of this fiscal year.
