Trump’s science policies hit Dutch research, data access

Scientists and academics across the Netherlands are feeling the impact of US president Donald Trump’s policies, as research funding dries up, key datasets disappear, and collaboration with US colleagues becomes increasingly difficult, according to new research.

A survey by news website Nu.nl, investigative platform Investico, De Groene Amsterdammer, and higher education news agency HOP found that one in three of the 210 researchers questioned is already experiencing direct effects in their daily work.

Of them, 14 respondents reported halted collaborations with US partners, while 26 said planned visits or conferences in the US were postponed, cancelled or changed format.

More than 20 respondents said that funding for their research had either been lost or become uncertain. Among them is virology professor Marion Koopmans, whose two studies into treatments for Covid and other infections came to a standstill after US funding was abruptly cut.

Beyond funding, one in five affected researchers reported that key data sources are no longer accessible. Seventeen said software or datasets essential to their work had vanished or were no longer being updated. The issue is particularly acute in medical research related to HIV and infectious diseases.

Epidemiologist Sanne Peters from UMC Utrecht told Nu.nl that she found data disappearing from the US-based Demographic and Health Surveys programme, which has paused public data sharing. She lost access to information for a study on transgender individuals and a dataset on young people’s sexual orientation. “In Trump’s America, there are only two genders,” she said.

The situation is just as difficult in climate research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), responsible for ocean and weather data, is quietly removing datasets or leaving them outdated, Nu.nl said.

Budget cuts of $1.3 billion are planned for next year. Without this data, “storms and hurricanes will be harder to predict,” Sjoerd Groeskamp from the Dutch Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) said.

Despite growing awareness, Dutch universities have taken little coordinated action, Nu.nl said.

Some institutions, such as Leiden University and Erasmus University, have introduced information sessions or designated contact points but most have no clear strategy.

Maastricht University, for example, said it had seen “no direct consequences” of US policy even though three researchers at the institution told Nu.nl that they had lost funding, been cut off from collaborations and no longer had access to essential data.

Last month, several Dutch scientific institutes said they are compiling a list of academic data that may need to be protected if the US government cuts ties with American institutions or projects,

The government has also set up a €25 million fund to attract foreign scientists to the Netherlands.