Fellowship for U.S. climate scientists paused amid federal budget review
A group of early-career researchers in a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate science fellowship were furloughed this week after the Trump administration withheld program funding and canceled this year’s awards.
Rebecca Dzombak reports for The New York Times.
In short:
- The Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship, funded by NOAA since 1991, has been halted due to budget uncertainty, with ten current fellows placed on unpaid leave.
- This year’s incoming class of fellows never received offers, as the program’s funding was suspended following the Trump administration’s proposed elimination of NOAA’s climate research budget.
- Scientists say the pause disrupts critical research on oceans, extreme weather, sea level rise, and air pollution, and weakens the United States’ long-standing role in leading climate science.
Key quote:
“This program is small, but it’s a lot of bang for your buck.”
— Jessica Tierney, paleoclimate scientist at the University of Arizona and former Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellow
Why this matters:
Scientific research doesn’t run on goodwill — it needs steady funding, long timelines, and skilled people. Pausing a program like NOAA’s Climate and Global Change Fellowship slows discovery in areas vital to understanding how climate change is reshaping the world. These fellows were studying how carbon is stored in the Southern Ocean, what happens to coral reefs in warming seas, and how climate extremes affect ecosystems and people. Cutting off that work now sends ripple effects through the broader scientific community and across international collaborations. And it signals to rising scientists that U.S. support for climate research is no longer reliable, risking a brain drain at a time when informed, data-driven policy is urgently needed.
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