🔗 Share this article

One of the prestigious award awarding bodies has issued a warning that academic freedom is under threat in the US and globally, with political interference causing serious consequences – while researchers prepare for next week’s award announcements.

Administrative Measures & The Effects

The former president has implemented or proposed a series of policies during his recent administration that critics argue will hamper education and academic studies.

“In my view in both the short and long term, it can have serious damage,” the official told the news agency in an interview. “Scholarly independence ... stands as a foundation of democratic societies.”

Officials rejects limiting scholarly work, saying its measures will reduce inefficiency and promote American research development.

Prestigious Award Background

The Nobel prizes, considered widely as the highest science awards in the world, are planned to be announced from next week, beginning with the prize in medicine and physiology next Monday and ending with the presenting of winners in economic sciences one week later.

The awards were created by prosperous Scandinavian explosives pioneer the philanthropist and are presented for exceptional accomplishments in physical sciences, chemistry, literary works and conflict resolution. They come with a prize amount of SEK 11 million (1.2 million dollars).

Proposed Changes

The administration has suggested reducing the budget for the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest funder of medical studies, and wants to dismantle the Education Department, in a bid to shrink the national involvement in education to support more control by the states.

His administration has also said it would prioritise giving grant money to programmes that emphasize “national values”, and demanded that schools limit international undergraduate enrollment at fifteen percent.

Expert Opinions

“Regarding studies, this will cause a significant decline in what the American scientists can do and what they are allowed to do, their publication opportunities, what they can get money for. Consequently, this will create major impacts,” said the official, who is chairperson of the academic policy group at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Administration officials stated through an electronic statement that the United States was the largest funder of academic studies in the world.

“Our targeted cuts to waste, fraud, and abuse in both research grant funding and immigration systems are will strengthen Americans’ innovative and scientific dominance,” it said.

University Relations

Trump has also been wrangling with multiple elite institutions – including professors may be among the award recipients in coming days – threatening to withhold federal funds regarding matters such as demonstrations related to conflict in the region, campus inclusion and gender identity regulations.

Financial Viewpoint

Internationally recognized scholar Simon Johnson, who won the Economics Nobel in 2024 for his studies of how institutions affect prosperity, said that Trump’s actions would certainly hamper economic growth.

“Such measures are absolutely, unambiguously harmful and especially regarding employment growth,” the economist, who is a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, commented.

“Every technical and research-related work, I think, are going to be affected,” the expert added. “Life Sciences is a particularly dynamic field at the moment and the National Institutes of Health is, for whatever reason, facing truly massive cuts.”