The scars a year of science cuts left behind

Last week’s science appropriations news was encouraging, but a Nature feature this week documents the damage done over the last year: almost 8,000 grants were terminated or frozen (2,600 of which have not been reinstated); science agencies lost roughly 20% of their staff; and although spending caught up to expectations, the number of new grants issued by NIH and NSF fell by almost a quarter. And even with strong appropriations, some threats remain. A separate Nature piece reports that 13 NIH advisory councils are on track to have no voting members by the end of the year. If that happens, new awards at those institutes could halt.