Dear readers,

We have been providing answers to your questions for several years now. A significant portion of our responses are based on research conducted in the United States or supported by American funding. Many of our collaborators have research experience in the U.S., cooperate with American scientific institutions, or currently work there.

With this statement, we want to express our support for the American scientific community and strongly oppose the actions of the current U.S. administration, which are destabilizing the country’s research environment. These actions include extensive layoffs within research centers and massive funding cuts for science and education, both of which threaten the progress of scientific research [1].

Academic institutions are suspending research projects, particularly those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion [2]. The current U.S. administration is monitoring and assessing research containing certain terms deemed „harmful“ [see ref. 3]. As a result, scientists studying biodiversity or climate change, as well as economists researching income inequality, may find their work jeopardized.

Additionally, under orders from the U.S. administration, scientific research databases, including critical healthcare data, are being removed [4]. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other health agencies have deleted statistics on HIV from their websites [5]. These actions undermine the work of countless researchers and will have far-reaching negative consequences for scientific knowledge.

Until now, the U.S. government has been the largest sponsor of scientific research worldwide. In 2022, for example, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided twenty-five times more funding for research than the second-largest sponsor, the British charity Wellcome Trust [6].

The freedom of scientific inquiry, which is now being restricted in the U.S., is a fundamental pillar of independent and high-quality research. We firmly believe that science and research must not be constrained by short-sighted political interests. We align ourselves with the statement published in Nature regarding the current situation: „An attack on science and scientists anywhere is an attack on science and scientists everywhere“ [7]. Science is global, and a weakening of science in the U.S. means a weakening of science worldwide.

This statement was prepared by Tomáš Koblížek, Jaroslav Bílek, and Adéla Šimková.

Signed on behalf of „Ask a Scientist“ by 124 Czech scientist.