What Federal Budget Cuts Mean to UC Santa Barbara Researchers and the Nation

It has been argued that what makes our country so special is the innovation that comes out of it: the first to land on the moon, the first to harness lightning to illuminate a bulb, the Internet, mRNA vaccines. Discoveries that put the United States on the map as the country of dreamers and inventors where the sky, or space, is the limit. 

Part of what makes that possible is the post-WWII model of stable, long-term federal science funding — designed to pay off in both discovery and economic growth. According to David Valentine, a UCSB scientist and professor of biogeochemistry and geobiology, “that model is under threat right now.” And for many researchers at UCSB, the future of their labs — and their life’s work — is uncertain. 

This isn’t the first time the Independent has covered these concerns. In April, Valentine warned that pending budget cuts under the Trump administration could have long-term consequences for UCSB’s research infrastructure. At the time, those threats were largely theoretical. Now, they’re coming to a head. According to the National Education Association, more than 1,600 National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling $1.5 billion have already been terminated since April. And in September, just as UCSB’s fall quarter is set to begin, Congress resumes debate over science agency funding.

Two House subcommittees have already passed budget bills that would slash funding to key science agencies. The proposed National Institute of Health (NIH) budget would drop by $456 million. NSF would face a $2.1 billion cut — nearly 23 percent. 

“Negotiations in both the House and Senate are ongoing,” said Eduardo Carrizosa, communications director for Santa Barbara Congressmember Salud Carbajal. “It’s unclear which pathway will be used to meet the [September 30] deadline.”

Carbajal has signed letters calling for full funding and worked with UCSB and federal agencies to reverse recent grant terminations. “Since the Congressman’s involvement, the federal government has reinstated some previously terminated grants,” Carrizosa said, including NSF, NIH, and National Endowment for the Humanities grants.

Between July 2024 and June 2025, UCSB received $178.1 million in direct and flow-through federal research funding — roughly 72 percent of its total research awards. While the university hasn’t disclosed how much is currently frozen or at risk, researchers say they’re feeling the effects.

“Roughly two-thirds of my lab’s funding comes from federal grants,” said Dr. Maxwell Wilson, a UCSB professor of molecular biology. His lab studies cancer, viruses, and drug solutions. “With so many of those now frozen or canceled, we’re facing the very real threat of running out of money within the next year. At a public university without an endowment, that means the science simply stops.”

He describes the situation as “purposefully confusing.” 

“Program officers have been ordered to not communicate with scientists,” he said. “And I hear funding decisions now require sign-off from the very top — a bureaucratic tactic used by paranoid dictators to control and slow operations.”

In the meantime, he said, proposals are “getting canceled and rejected without explanation,” and his lab is caught in what he describes as “death by a thousand cuts.”

The Threatened Research

Qinghua Ding, a UCSB climate scientist, will lose key satellite data in the coming months.

The Trump administration’s new budget would shut down the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellites and several long-term atmospheric monitoring stations.

“OCO data is critical for climate change research” Ding wrote to the Independent. “A pause in these observations will significantly slow research progress across campus.”

Some data from other countries may help, he said, “but such a shift would transfer leadership … a change that would be difficult to reverse.”

For Valentine, the threat is already personal. His federally funded investigation into DDT dumping off the Los Angeles coast may soon halt. “We uncovered this massive dumping campaign that had flown under the radar for decades,” he said. “And that would certainly get canceled. That work would just freeze.”

If that freeze does indeed happen, “everything comes to a grinding halt, then we have to start looking at laying people off.” Valentine explained. “Even if funding returns, that team you’ve built … it begins to crumble. It’s not something you can just easily put back together.”

There are roughly 500 UCSB graduate students that make up those teams, paid through federal research funds. That same funding supports more than 160 postdoctoral researchers across campus.

Wilson is especially critical of the rationale behind the cuts. “The U.S. military just received another budget increase despite its inability to pass a financial audit. Meanwhile, agencies like the NIH and NSF — arguably the best venture funds this country has ever built — are being gutted. It’s an extraordinary misalignment of priorities.

“Basic science is where the internet, immunotherapy, and CRISPR all began,” he added. “These discoveries didn’t come from planned roadmaps but from curiosity-driven exploration. If we lose that, we’re not just slowing innovation — we’re eroding one of the most human things about us: the drive to understand the unknown.”

UCSB and the Nation

Looking toward UCLA, Valentine warns that if UCSB were to face similar cuts, the ripple effects could cost thousands of jobs across Santa Barbara. In late July, the federal government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in research funds at UCLA, citing anti-Semitism and institutional bias, according to its chancellor and federal documents. 

UCSB does not know for sure what will happen. But there are broad stakes. “It is important to recognize that reductions in federal research support could have a significant impact on innovative work,” said Kiki Reyes, UCSB’s media relations manager. “[Work that] saves lives, grows and drives our economy in California and the nation, and contributes to our national security.”

“This model of long-term funding — stable, federal support — that’s what made us the research powerhouse we are today,” Valentine said. “And if we let that go, we don’t just lose competitiveness. We lose the system.”

At a UCSB town hall on August 21, Rep. Carbajal echoed the urgency:

“These cuts threaten not only groundbreaking research, but also student services, faculty jobs, and the future of inclusive higher education…. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment.”