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Alessandra Zimmermann

@alesszimm.bsky.social

480 followers 80 following 31 posts

Federal R&D Budget Policy at AAAS | Biochem PhD | views are my own | she/her

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Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · 12d

It could also be the case that the employees would be fired prior to the shutdown starting, or the RIF become enforceable immediately after a shutdown is ended - but again, it's hard to know for sure how it would be handled.

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · 12d

Historically firings during a shutdown have not been possible, but as far as I can tell no one has formally determined that they are illegal. I have been reporting saying that it is likely illegal, but anything definite is hard to come by at the moment.

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · 14d

Another lit review incoming: this time looking at the impacts of federal shutdowns. While this report is a little bit broader than just the R&D ecosystem, it does provide a picture of what could happen next week, should a funding patch not be signed into law.

www.aaas.org/news/researc...

Research on R&D Funding: Impacts of Federal Shutdowns | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · 29d

Also released today is a new literature review, looking at the different character of basic research in the public and private sectors, and cites studies that show how the two work together, not separately, to bring about American innovation.
You can read it here: www.aaas.org/news/researc...

Research on R&D Funding: The Different Functions of Public and Private R&D | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · 29d

Today the House committee marked up their LHHS bill, which means all of the House appropriations bills have had their report language released and I could update the House R&D estimates in my report.
You can find the updated report on the same page as before:
www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

News | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Aug 5

It's August recess, congress has left DC and I've got another report - this time highlighting what the Senate was up to. Just as with the House, they're missing some bills so we've worked around those gaps to try to bring you the best picture of what they've passed.
www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations: Senate R&D Report | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 22

In it we show the R&D capacity of agencies based on the levels the House has provided (minus HHS and Education, since their bill isn't out yet) and agency highlights showing exactly what has been provided in terms of program funding and organizational changes.

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 22

With the House potentially starting their recess early, here's a report on what they've proposed so far for FY 2026 Appropriations.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations: House R&D Report | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 15

I've just released a new report that expands on the data that was featured in a certain NYT article last week.
On top of how basic, applied, and developmental science fares in the PBR, it looks at agency R&D capacity, functional classifications, and historical trends.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations: Federal R&D Estimates | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 14

A whole lot of bills were just released by the House in the last 24 hours, and I've updated the dashboard with all of them. More details to come as the report language gets released after the markups, but there's already a lot to process:

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 8

Note that the way the early retirements were structured, and the date at which the data was requested from agencies means that FY 2025 numbers are not going to reflect the cuts we've been hearing about.

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 8

All eyes might be on the House and Senate, but I'm not done extracting everything I can from the PBR. So here's the Federal R&D Workforce tracker, that uses the FTE numbers to show historical data on employment at key agencies and programs, plus proposed FY 2026 levels:
www.aaas.org/news/trackin...

Tracking the Federal R&D Workforce | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jul 1

All the major R&D agencies' budget justifications are now out, and thus the dashboard and PBR report are as complete as I can get them. You can now download the latest report for the (just added) summaries of Defense, NIST and NOAA.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations: The Presidential Budget Request | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jun 10

We're also updating the appropriations dashboard as well, who now includes all the latest House Approps markup numbers.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jun 10

It is not comprehensive, and we are missing a few agencies that haven't published enough details to write up a section on, but the report highlights the major elements and we will keep updating the report as new details come out.

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Jun 10

New Report alert! I tried to compile as much of the funding and organizational changes that the FY 2026 PBR outlines for the R&D accounts that we track.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations: The Presidential Budget Request | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · May 30

Agencies are starting to upload their FY 2026 congressional justifications, so the Appropriations Dashboard is updating as fast as I can find the documents.

www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · May 2

With the release of the skinny Presidential Budget Request, the FY 2026 season officially kicks off and the dashboard goes live!
Because this is a -skinny- request not everything was mentioned, so we'll keep updating as more details roll out in the next weeks and months.
www.aaas.org/news/fy-2026...

FY 2026 R&D Appropriations Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · May 2

That I'm populating the dashboard right now, hopefully to release soon!

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Apr 30

Additionally, we've added a dashboard (embedded below the report download) since the report focuses on the top performers in each category, but there are so many more countries investing in R&D. The dashboard also has extra metrics and fields that we just didn't have the space to discuss in writing

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Apr 30

To demonstrate that crossroad, I released the latest updated to our U.S. R&D and Innovation in a Global Context report, which uses funding, investment intensity, workforce, publications and patents to demonstrate the U.S.'s position on the global stage

Read it here:
www.aaas.org/news/us-rd-a...

U.S. R&D and Innovation in a Global Context: The 2025 Data Update | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Apr 30

Today @aaas.org's CEO, testified before the Senate Appropriations committee and stated that the U.S. is at a crossroads — it needs to decide if it wants to remain a dominant R&D economy or give up the title

Watch the recording here:
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/bio...

Biomedical Research: Keeping America’s Edge in Innovation | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Apr 10

The State Dashboard keeps evolving!

We were donated new data so you can know how many full-time PhD and postdocs are funded by state, institution, and agency.
Check out the new #Researchers tab on the dashboard, plus another data donation coming next week!
www.aaas.org/news/state-r...

State R&D Dashboard | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Alessandra Zimmermann @alesszimm.bsky.social · Apr 3

I know I only launched the state R&D dashboard last week, but the Science is US team granted me access to their data so there's a new tab with all of their analyses; looking at STEMM jobs by state, sector, and economic impact:
www.aaas.org/news/state-r...

Also, obviously, go read their full report!

Reposted by Alessandra Zimmermann

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · Mar 28

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.

Find out how your community may be impacted.

Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org

a 🧵

US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.