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The NSF has reduced spending on the basic sciences by 50% or more in 2025, with similar cuts proposed for next year as well. For instance, through to May 21 of this year, the funding awarded to the mathematical sciences is currently $32 million, compared to the 10-year average of $113 million. (These are of course large numbers for an individual person, but with the US population of 340 million, this amounts to spending less than 22 cents per American per year on basic mathematical research, compared to the 10-year average of 80 cents per American per year.) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/22/upshot/nsf-grants-trump-cuts.html

I myself have been fortunate to be supported by a small fraction of this 80 cents for almost the entirety of my professional career, allowing me to conduct research in the summer, invite speakers to my department, and to support graduate students. For now, I can continue these activities at a minimal level using by existing (and relatively modest) NSF grant https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2347850 , but already I do not have the resources to put into any future long-term projects. For instance, my experiments with using new technologies for mathematical workflows is being conducted purely by myself and contributions from unpaid online volunteers; I am applying for funding from several sources for these projects, but I am expecting the process to be extremely competitive. (1/3)