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Nearly 60 percent of Americans support increasing federal funding for medical research, according to survey results released Monday.
The nationwide survey from the Civic Health and Institutions Project, which is made up of researchers from Rutgers, Harvard and Northeastern Universities as well as the University of Rochester, asked respondents about their views on cuts to grant funding at the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation as well as layoffs at science agencies and other changes in science and research policy. More than 30,000 people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia responded to the survey, which was conducted between April 10 and June 10.
“Across the board, our research showed that government actions to defund scientific work and conduct massive layoffs in science and health agencies are not being met with strong public support,” said Katherine Ognyanova, an associate professor of communication at Rutgers and principal investigator on the survey, in a news release.
Democrats were more likely to back funding increases for medical research with 67 percent signaling their support, according to the release. About 48 percent of Republicans also favored funding increases compared to 57 percent over all. About 15 percent of Republicans support funding cuts.
The Trump administration has proposed deep cuts to the NIH and NSF budgets while slowing down grant awards for the current fiscal year. Senate Democrats estimate that the NIH cut about $2.7 billion in grant funding during the first three months of the year.
Over all, about 21 percent of Americans approve of the Trump administration’s actions while 48 percent disapprove. More than 30 percent had no opinion either way.
“This suggests that public opinion is not simply divided into two opposing camps, but reflects a substantial degree of ambivalence or uncertainty,” researchers from the Civic Health and Institutions Project said in the release.
