Thousands join Stand Up for Science rallies across the US

Stand Up for Science rally in Washington Square Park in New York City on 7 March

James Dinneen

Thousands of people in cities across the US protested the Trump administration’s cuts to scientific funding on 7 March.

In New York City, more than a thousand people gathered in Washington Square Park, chanting, “Fund science not war!” People carried signs in support of science and deploring the cuts, including one that read: “Science makes America great.”

The protest was one of at least 30 “Stand Up for Science” rallies in cities across the US, with more than 150 events expected worldwide. Researchers also walked out of laboratories as part of the protest.

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, the administration has cancelled or frozen billions of dollars of federal funding for scientific and medical research. Many of the cuts have focused on research related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), as well as research on climate change and gender. The administration has also fired thousands of federal employees at US scientific agencies, including at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Science is something that has to be treasured. I think everyone has to be here. I would rather be in my lab working with my cells, but I think we have to bring awareness to these problems,” says Ana Vivinetteo, a neuroscientist at Weill Cornell Medicine who attended the New York protest. She was carrying a sign that read: “So bad, even introverts are here.”

Demonstrators hold signs during a Stand Up for Science rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on 7 March

Tierney L Cross / Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Science is being attacked and funding is being slashed in a way that is going to impact our nation’s well-being now and for many decades,” says Maia, a postdoctoral researcher in cardiology at Columbia University in New York, who only gave her first name for fear of reprisal. She says she and her colleagues have lost funding for their research.

The largest rally took place in Washington DC, where thousands of people attended. Speakers there included Bill Nye the Science Guy; Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and several members of Congress. More than 1500 people attended the New York event, where prominent researchers also spoke, including Harvard theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, chief scientist at Meta AI Yann LeCun and Harold Varmus, a former NIH director and Nobel prizewinner.

Researchers from all over the world attended the New York protest. “America was very exceptional for science. We really believe that science made America great. Now we are very disappointed because everything is going to be destroyed,” says a French cancer biologist, who asked to remain anonymous.

New Scientist also spoke with scientists from Argentina, Israel, Canada and Australia at the rally. Several of them were concerned they may have to leave the US to continue their work. “I’m heartbroken. I thought I would make this my home and do my science here,” says Vivinetteo, who is from Argentina.

Dennis Robbins, a science educator at Hunter College in New York, was carrying a sign that read: “Now I’m a mad scientist.” He says he carried the same sign in the first “March for Science” protest in 2017. “It’s stunning that we still have to rally for science, that someone has to speak up for its meaningfulness in a democracy,” he says.

#StandUpForScience2025 at Michigan Capitol. Still time to come out and advocate for preserving science funding and evidence-based decision making by our government. pic.twitter.com/jvTkTzoCaF

— Rebecca Santelli (She/Her) (@RebeccaSantelli) March 7, 2025

We stood up! We were so proud to lend our voices (and our sign-making talents) to support scientific research. #ResearchMatters #standupforscience2025 #scienceforall #sciencenotsilence pic.twitter.com/MoFMrnVkUV

— NDRI (@NDRI_Resource) March 7, 2025

Great crowd at the March for science in Philly! Most popular sign ‘I left lab for this’. Protest is just starting so come join us! #marchforscience #science #philly

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— Melissa Shusterman (@melshust.bsky.social) March 7, 2025 at 11:04 AM