On Friday, March 7, multiple “Stand Up for Science” protests nationwide will spring up to defend science as a pillar of social benefit, including one in Hartford. The organization behind the protests is calling for lawmakers and scientific professionals to ensure its benefits continue to serve the public in the wake of political changes, according to the group’s webpage.
The Stand Up for Science organization is holding their own major protest in Washington, D.C. on Friday and is endorsing rallies across 31 major U.S. cities, including New York City, Providence and Boston in addition to the protest being held at the Connecticut State Capitol building. The group says that the issue of maintaining scientific integrity doesn’t end at Capitol Hill.
Medical researchers from universities and the National Institutes of Health rally near the Health and Human Services headquarters to protest federal budget cuts Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
“Science shapes our world, drives innovation, and protects our future — but it needs voices like yours to defend and champion it,” the group’s webpage says.
The rallies come in response to the actions of President Donald Trump, which has resulted in funding cuts and mass firings across federally supported scientific agencies. The National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration have all seen droves of employees fired and budgets diminished, affecting ongoing and proposed research and funding for numerous institutions, including the University of Connecticut. The NSF is the funding source for approximately 25% of all federally supported research conducted by colleges and universities nationwide, according to its agency webpage.
“NSF is the only federal agency whose mission includes support for all fields of fundamental science and engineering,” says the UConn Office of the Vice President for Research. “It is tasked with keeping the United States at the leading edge of discovery in areas from astronomy to geology to zoology.”
The Stand Up for Science organization was founded by researchers affected by these sweeping changes. The members say they have plans to meet with elected officials but want the rallies to send a message to the government that science is for the benefit of all.
“We want thousands and thousands of people to come. All over the US, we want people to put down their science, put down the pipette, close their R script, cancel their run-throughs of their experiments that day and come out,” said Colette Delawalla, a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at Emory University and lead organizer to the Scientific American. “That is our number one goal for March 7.”
Delawalla and fellow organizers Emma Courtney, a Ph.D. candidate in biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Sam Goldstein, a Ph.D. candidate in health behavior at the University of Florida, say that science has become a political subject because of the amount of involvement the government has in research and funding.
“The way that we’re taught science is really meant to minimize the role of opinion and bias in data collection. I think that is kind of the limit to which science is not political,” Courtney said. “Politics defines who can be a scientist and defines which grants get funded and what gets attention — science and politics are really incredibly intertwined.”
The Stand Up for Science rallies start at noon. For more information and to register for the Hartford event, visit standupforscience2025.org.