Following Republican President-elect Donald Trump's unexpected win this week, many scientists are expressing concerns for what the new administration might mean for research, according to The Washington Post.
Here are three things to know.
1. A key concern for scientists is Mr. Trump's position on climate change. Mr. Trump has previously pledged to "cancel" the Paris climate agreement, as well as eliminate environmental regulations, according to the report.
"It doesn’t look like it's going to be great," Joshua Drew, a lecturer in the department of ecology, evolution and environmental biology at Columbia University in New York City, told The Washington Post. "The class I'm teaching right now is coastal and estuarine ecology, and we cover a lot of topics including global climate change, sea level rise, ocean acidification. The fact that Trump doesn't believe in that does not bode well toward having a U.S. policy that addresses those issues."
2. Mr. Trump hasn't provided details on how his pledge to cut federal spending will affect funding for scientific research, according to the report. The report notes the majority of academic researchers count on grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as other government agencies.
"I just feel like there's so much uncertainty," Meghan Duffy, PhD, a disease ecologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, told The Washington Post. "I have tenure, so if I have a gap between grants, it wouldn't be disastrous. But I know a lot of people who are earlier in their careers and are really worried about what it means for funding right now . . . about what a reduction in funding would mean for their ability to have a career as a scientist."
3. Also unclear is how Mr. Trump's immigration policies might impact research, according to the report. Leighton Ku, PhD, a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., told The Washington Post it's likely that the kinds of highly-skilled scientists who immigrate to America to work or go to school would still be welcome. The question is will they want to come?
"I can see someone saying, 'Gee, do I really want to go to the U.S. if I think this is an environment that might not be friendly to immigrants?" Dr. Ku said.
For more on this story, read Sarah Kaplan's full report in The Washington Post.