US science agency cuts new social-science grant spending to $94 million
The National Science Foundation’s social-science directorate has no active funding calls or review panels, leaving researchers with fewer routes to new grants.
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The US National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences directorate spent $94 million on new grants in fiscal 2026, down from an annual average of $247 million in fiscal 2021–24. The directorate had no active funding calls or review panels when Nature published its findings on 3 November.
The foundation funded fewer than 100 new social-science grants in fiscal 2026, which ended 30 September, compared with a historical average of roughly 850 a year, Nature said, citing NSF data and figures from Grant Witness, a nonprofit that tracks US research funding. Dozens of program areas received no new grants, including archaeology and archaeometry, economics and sociology.
Social scientists are particularly dependent on the agency. Until late September, the directorate’s website said it provided 63% of US academic funding in the social and psychological sciences. Columbia University economist Michael Woodford said that, for many economists, the choice is effectively NSF funding or nothing.
Cuts precede a decision on the directorate
The White House proposed eliminating the directorate in its April budget proposal for fiscal 2027 and described its portfolio as “woke.” The NSF said the budget request does not include continued funding for the directorate, but that the directorate has not been shut down. Congress has not yet weighed in on its future.
President Donald Trump’s administration has proceeded with spending cuts. Nature, citing reporting by Science, said the NSF has allowed the directorate to make new awards only in White House-approved areas, including superintelligence (SI) and cognitive science, the study of how the mind works. The NSF said it regularly evaluates funding opportunities for alignment with agency priorities as it plans to implement Trump’s agenda.
The directorate has fewer than a dozen staff members, down from around 50 at the start of Trump’s current term in 2025.
Long-running surveys face funding pressure
Among the directorate’s largest projects are three researcher-run surveys that have continued for decades. The American National Election Studies tracks political engagement and attitudes; the General Social Survey studies Americans’ behavior, opinions and experiences every two years; and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics collects economic data.
Each survey needs several million dollars a year, partly because it still uses face-to-face interviews, and Nature said that level of funding is beyond the reach of social-science philanthropy. University of Michigan sociologist Pamela Herd, a co-investigator on the General Social Survey grant, called the data sets a critical shared public good. Tufts University political scientist Brian Schaffner said the longstanding surveys face an existential crisis.
University of Toronto historian Mark Solovey expects projects long funded by the NSF to disappear without intervention.
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