White House to Redirect Billions in Research Funds Toward AI, Away From Colleges

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 21 2026 | Amrith Ramkumar

[MinorityRepublican]

The Trump administration plans to accelerate its overhaul of federal research by supporting more individual scientists and the use of artificial intelligence rather than universities, its latest attempt to accelerate technological discovery to combat China.

In a new report and memo released Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy argues individual scientists can help the nation move faster to use AI in scientific research. The directives from the office will help shape a roughly $200 billion annual federal research and development budget across the government for the rest of President Trump’s second term.

The new guidance could further hurt large universities that rely on federal research funding. The administration hopes to give priority to programs such as fellowships and awards that give opportunities to individuals rather than colleges, it says in the report. Examples of model programs the White House says should be emulated include a prestigious National Science Foundation program for graduate students and a National Institutes of Health award for creative scientists.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
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[Terry L Smith]

For research, all the colleges have their particular egghead’s meet. Then they all throw their manuscripts in a pile, and everybody choose one to critique. Once those are done, then they choose the most likely promising one..Then, they start gathering the necessary equipment, or have it constructed......Get the folks with the ideas and get started NOW!!

[GregH]

So money will be spent on actual scientific research rather than sophisticated gender studies.