The new Executive Order on “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” places unprecedented political control over federal research grants, including those from NIH and NSF. By giving political appointees the authority to review and even terminate grants, deprioritizing institutions with higher infrastructure costs, and halting new funding opportunities until new procedures are in place, this order threatens the stability, fairness, and independence of federally supported science.

For medical physicists, the risks are profound. Delays in funding announcements could stall ongoing studies, abrupt terminations could disrupt cancer treatment and imaging research, and a shift toward short-term priorities jeopardizes the long-term innovations that patients depend on. Scientific peer review—not political ideology—must remain the standard for funding decisions.

We urge you to contact your Representatives using the template message provided (or personalize it to reflect your own work). Together, we can affirm that federal research must be guided by scientific merit, not politics, and that predictable, unbiased grant support is essential to advancing patient care and protecting U.S. leadership in medical innovation.

Speak up for science!