Washington, DC — The United States, home to Silicon Valley, has consistently ranked number one in scientific research due to its numerous top universities and research institutions, as well as significant investment in scientific research and development (R&D).

With US President Donald Trump reducing federal research funding and laying off researchers as part of cost-cutting measures, scientists warn that America risks losing its global supremacy to China.

"Biomedical research in the US operates via a triangle: NIH (National Institutes of Health) funds universities to conduct research; that research creates new scientists and discoveries, which in turn support private industry, which then pays taxes that support the government," Cassidy Claassen, Associate Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, explains to TRT World.

Any impact on this circuit risks America's leadership in this field, he states.

The NIH is the largest source of funding for medical research in the world. It is the biggest funder for biomedical research in the US, contributing roughly $48 billion to 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities annually.

It gave out about $35 billion in grants in 2024. 

Scientists say the Trump administration's funding freeze for medical research and the sacking of some 1,200 researchers — even as the executive order has been challenged in courts — threaten America's standing as a world leader in science and innovation.

"The US is a global leader in biomedical research because of our strong governmental investment in sciences, both in the US and abroad. Currently, US researchers partner with institutions in PEPFAR-supported countries, which leads to cross-border research on improving the HIV response and tuberculosis, as well as emerging infectious diseases and pandemics, and also non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, cardiac disease and cancer," Claassen notes while referring to the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

"With decreased US funding for PEPFAR, all such partnered research efforts will stall," he says.

Giving up leadership to China

Since the end of World War II, the US has been the global leader in scientific research due to the heavy funding from the government in research that further pushes American innovation.

"Federal investment in science through the NIH and National Science Foundation (NSF) and other agencies after World War II is what helped the US experience enormous growth in the 1950s and 1960s and boosted America to the forefront of the world economically and technologically," Carole LaBonne, a Developmental and Stem Cell Biologist at Northwestern University, tells TRT World.

She says discoveries sponsored by the NIH and NSF gave rise to entirely new industries — pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, semiconductors, computing and the commercial internet — securing high-value jobs and exports. 

In 2021, the cumulative amount spent by the US in R&D fields, including natural sciences, medical and health sciences, and engineering and technology, was $789.1 billion. 

In 2022, Washington's expenditure on research and innovation significantly increased, reaching $885.6 billion.

LaBonne warns that Trump's funding freeze could undo years of progress and dethrone the US from its leading position in scientific research.

"It (cut in research funding) not only can but does threaten US dominance in research and science. It is essentially a gift to China, which is investing heavily in research because it understands what a central driver of economic prosperity it is," LaBonne, who also runs a stem cell lab, says.

"This is something the US always used to understand, but apparently not anymore." 

The drastic measures being taken by the Trump administration are aiding China as well as other countries in their efforts to replace the US, Jeremy Berg, a former director of one of the 27 National Institutes of Health, tells TRT World.

"Other countries, including but not limited to China, have been investing and recruiting in science heavily in recent years, and the Trump administration's actions only aid these efforts to overtake the US," Berg says.

Estimates suggest China spent nearly $500 billion in R&D funding, including medical research, in its drive to boost innovation. 

China isn't the only threat to America’s global dominance in research. Other candidates include Japan, France, the UK and the Netherlands. 

Stuart Buck, executive director of the Good Science Project, tells TRT World that any pause in research funding by the US would have consequences and threaten America's scientific throne.

"Any attempt to blindly cut scientific funding in the US (as opposed to more thoughtful reforms) would likely have large negative consequences for the US position in the world as a scientific and academic leader," says Buck, who leads the non-profit think tank focused on boosting government science funding and policy. 

Cuts will be paid in human lives

Federal spending freezes or cuts could severely affect thousands of scientists and increase public health risks, warns Arthur Reingold, epidemiology professor at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  

Reingold, who has co-directed the CDC-funded California Emerging Infections Program since its inception in 1994, says, "The overall impacts, which are being felt immediately and will reverberate for decades to come, include: reduced ability to conduct important biomedical and other scientific research within world-class governmental and academic centres; reduced numbers of trainees entering these fields; devastated lives of hundreds/thousands of individuals who are abruptly terminated (and their families); and far less preparedness to detect/respond to diverse public health threats, at the local/state/national/international levels."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the US. 

Buck highlights that federal cuts could severely impact academic labs operating on tight budgets, uncertain if they can pay graduate students or postdocs this autumn.

"The effect would be the strongest in scientific areas that are inherently expensive (such as labs that run animal experiments and that need costly microscopes) as opposed to scientific fields that are cheaper (such as computational fields that require a good computer and some statistical software)."

Berg warns that funding cuts and layoffs may cause a brain drain, driving scientists away from the US.

"Demoralisation and consideration of alternative countries as places to pursue careers in science are already becoming evident," Berg says.

LaBonne warns of three severe impacts that could extend beyond biomedical research.

Firstly, she says, any cut in the NIH budget the way it has been proposed would decimate the US biomedical research enterprise, adding some of the cost "will be paid in human lives."

Secondly, she says, the cuts would take a toll on the economy as the NIH funding generates an estimated $92.89 billion in economic activity.

"Finally, federal research funding not only drives impactful research discoveries but also supports the training of the scientists, engineers and innovators of the future. University laboratories, funded by federal grants, serve as essential training grounds for the next generation of researchers even as they push the boundaries of knowledge. This training prepares young scientists for leadership roles in both academia and industry, helping to ensure that the scientific workforce remains strong and able to respond to future challenges," she adds.

LaBonne says the desire to dismantle America's research enterprise is utterly baffling.

"That anyone would seek to blow that up is truly incomprehensible. And it will be much easier to destroy the US scientific research enterprise than it will be to try and rebuild it."