On July 7, 2025, 10 researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program were placed on unpaid leave due to uncertainty around NOAA’s funding situation. No new fellowship offers have been made for the year, and funding delays have interrupted ongoing research projects.
Since 1991, NOAA’s Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has supported over 230 climate scientists, including the current chief scientist at NASA’s Earth Science and Technology Division and the current head of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The cuts threaten ongoing research projects, including a study on a critical component of the global climate cycle and a study of how coral reefs adapt to warmer, more acidic oceans.
Current and former fellows have expressed concern about what these and other cuts will mean for the future of U.S. climate research. Jessica Tierney, a paleoclimate scientist and former fellow and selection committee member, warned that “if we lose this program, it’s another part of the U.S. losing our pre-eminence as a place where the top climate science in the world happens.”