Since Donald Trump took office in January, researchers across the U.S. have been waiting for scientific leaders to forcefully speak out against the administration's grant freezes, research funding cuts, and targeting of diversity in their field. Frustrated that there seemed to be no large-scale movement coalescing, Colette Delawalla, a graduate student in clinical psychology, took matters into her own hands.
She posted on Bluesky, now the social media of choice for many scientists, "Get in Dorks, we are going protesting." At the time, "I really thought 500 people might show up to D.C., that's where I was in my head," she said.
But little more than three weeks later, what began as an effort by five early career researchers has exploded into a global movement called Stand Up for Science -- with 32 coordinated rallies planned across the country on Friday, and affiliated walkouts and protests across the globe. The largest events are slated for Washington D.C., New York City, and Boston.
"Science is at the forefront of this fight for democracy," Delawalla told STAT this week, the day before she was set to travel to Washington. "I think that people just understand that this is a part of a bigger picture, and that's why there seems to be a lot of buy-in."
The protest was initially put together by Delawalla, a graduate student at Emory University, and four other early-career researchers, who now spearhead a group of hundreds of volunteers coordinating the protests. The early days of the Trump administration saw little coordinated pushback from the scientific community, but that is beginning to change.
Federal employees rallied outside the Department of Health and Human Services' headquarters to protest recent firings and just this week, 48 scientific societies sent a letter to Congress demanding protections for federal research.
It is unclear how many people will turn out on Friday, but the movement seems to be gaining momentum. "It's definitely coming together," said Dana Fisher, a sociologist who studies social movements -- including the 2017 March for Science. "The Trump administration has declared war on science way more than it did in 2017. It's laid off scientists. 800 folks were, you know, laid off at NOAA last week. At the same time we saw those of us who are funded through agencies are all under scrutiny, or under hold orders for our grants. So, it makes sense that a lot of people in the scientific community are paying attention."
Fisher has studied protests for years, sending members of her lab to survey participants of protests to understand why they are there. As she was preparing for this week, she and her students were dedicating more of their attention to a Tuesday rally organized by 50501, a group aiming to have rallies in all 50 states on one day. But over the weekend, her priorities shifted as she realized Stand Up for Science may be the bigger event. It was the top trending topic on Bluesky, nudged by high-profile influencers like Hank Green posting about it, and news outlets beginning covering the protest.
The planned speakers for the D.C. event include Bill Nye, the famed science educator, Atul Gawande, a surgeon, popular medical commentator and former USAID official, and Francis Collins, former director of the NIH who retired last week. While the protest has received some support from scientific organizations, like the Union of Concerned Scientists and the American Association of University Professors, the buy-in from large organizations has not been as strong as in 2017.
"In 2017 almost every scientific society in existence formally endorsed the March for Science. It appears to me that scientific societies are much more reluctant to throw their official support behind today's protests," said Lucky Tran, a science communicator who helped organize the 2017 march. "I understand that scientific institutions are being cautious because this time they are more directly targeted, however I am worried about them preemptively self-censoring, which could be very damaging in the long-term."
The group behind Stand Up for Science solidified a nonprofit organization last week, to continue to push for changes in science policy going forward, the organizers said.
"I feel like science and academia more broadly has a bit of a collective action problem. Where people come out of hibernation to go do a big event, to call their representatives, and then things peter out, and then we wait till the next big emergency, when it's too late," said Leslie Berntsen, one of the lead organizers of Stand Up for Science. She said the goal is for "people to continue to speak out, people to continue to take action, even in moments when the world doesn't feel like it's burning down around you. Science advocacy has to be something that you engage in all the time, not just when there are level-five emergencies."