This article analyzes the crisis in U.S. academic science at the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term. The aim of this study is to synthesize the findings of The New York Times’ “Lost Science” monitoring project and related civic initiatives in the context of defending scientific autonomy. The project’s findings show that while the number of discontinued grants was formally modest (about 6%), the brunt of the cuts fell on critical “survival technologies” (climatology, medicine, epidemiology) and on long-term infrastructure monitoring projects. The phenomenon of “institutional amnesia”, arising from the disruption of long-standing chains of observation, is described. The formation of a “civil mobilization ecosystem” is documented, which transforms dry statistics into a tool for public defense of science. Interest has been identified within the scientific community in measures to enhance the resilience of large scientific structures – specifically, the protection of university-based science, the creation of decentralized digital archives, and international “safe havens” for research projects.
autonomy of science; research funding; civil monitoring; institutional resilience; Big Science; survival technologies.