NSF and NCAR: the plan to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NSF climate grant terminations (2025-2026)

NSF and NCAR: the plan to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NSF climate grant terminations (2025-2026)

Case

In December 2025 the White House budget director said the National Science Foundation would dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), which has about 830 employees and received about $123 million in NSF core funding in fiscal 2025. NCAR's operator, UCAR, sued in March 2026, and on June 1 a federal judge temporarily blocked the transfer of its supercomputing center. Separately, NSF terminated well over a thousand grants in 2025, including more than 100 climate-related projects by one tracker's count.

The plan to dismantle NCAR (Dec. 2025)
On Dec. 16, 2025 OMB Director Russ Vought posted that NSF will dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, calling it one of the largest sources of "climate alarmism" in the country and saying vital activities such as weather research would be moved to another entity or location.
NCAR, founded in 1960 and managed for NSF by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), has about 830 employees. NSF provided about $123 million in core funding in fiscal 2025, roughly half of its budget.
A May 2025 NSF budget proposal had suggested cutting NCAR's funding by 40%. On the day of Vought's post, NSF said it was reviewing NCAR's structure and would explore transferring management of its supercomputer and aircraft.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said the administration does not have the authority to dismantle the center.
According to OMB documents released in UCAR's lawsuit, as described by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a memo directed NSF to accelerate restructuring through a public-comment process, spin off the supercomputer and two aircraft, and rescope NCAR's work to focus on weather rather than climate modeling.

UCAR's lawsuit and the June 2026 injunction
UCAR sued NSF, NOAA, the Commerce Department, OMB and their directors on March 16, 2026, alleging the dismantling plans were unlawful retaliation in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution.
The complaint alleges retaliatory measures including taking away UCAR's stewardship of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center, ending a NOAA-UCAR cooperative agreement that funded climate adaptation and mitigation research, imposing gag orders on UCAR and NCAR officials, and plotting with private entities to strip UCAR and NCAR of resources. These are allegations.
The suit says NSF told NCAR's director on Feb. 12 that it had decided to transfer the supercomputing center, weeks before the March 13 deadline for public feedback.
On June 1, 2026 Judge Brooke Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado granted a preliminary injunction blocking NSF from moving stewardship of the supercomputing center away from UCAR and NCAR, finding UCAR likely to succeed on its claim that NSF's decision was arbitrary and capricious.
The judge found UCAR would suffer irreparable harm, including employee attrition and unrecoverable financial losses. The court still has to decide whether NSF can ultimately go through with the transfer and the other alleged retaliatory actions.

NSF grant terminations (2025)
NSF froze grant payments on Jan. 27, 2025 to identify grants touching topics targeted by Trump's executive orders, including climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the Sabin Center's tracker. By May 2, 2025 about 1,425 grants had been terminated.
AIP reported that DOGE's arrival at NSF appeared to have precipitated the April 2025 terminations. DOGE said in a post on X that NSF canceled 402 "wasteful DEI grants" in one round, and NSF's director resigned during the cuts.
MIT Technology Review, using the GrantWatch tracker and NSF's own list, found that by early June 2025 NSF had terminated grants for more than 100 projects related to climate change.
One terminated grant was a Harvard-NCAR collaboration to update the atmospheric chemistry component of the Community Earth System Model, an open-source climate model widely used by scientists.
Congress's final fiscal 2026 law funds NSF at $8.75 billion, a 3.4% cut from fiscal 2025, rather than the 57% cut the White House requested.

What the sources do not establish
The sources reviewed do not show whether NSF appealed the injunction, or what has happened to the plans for NCAR's aircraft and Mesa Lab.
Counts of terminated NSF grants, and of how many concern climate, vary by tracker and date.

Perspectives

Official position — OMB Director Russ Vought and the White House
Vought says NCAR is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country, that a comprehensive review is underway, and that vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location. In the OMB memo as described by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the aim is to align NCAR's mission more closely with administration priorities by focusing on weather rather than climate modeling.

Official position — National Science Foundation
NSF said on Dec. 16, 2025 that it was reviewing NCAR's structure and would explore options to transfer management of its supercomputer and aircraft.

Legal view — UCAR (NCAR's operator), in its lawsuit
UCAR argues NSF lacks authority to transfer stewardship of NCAR under its agreement, acted before considering public input, and has identified no performance deficiency. It says the actions are part of a series of punishments targeted at Colorado, and that transferring the supercomputing center would cost jobs, disrupt research and impede UCAR's contractual obligations.

Critic — Colorado officials (Gov. Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser)
Polis said climate change is real, that science is being attacked, and that NCAR's work goes beyond climate science, delivering data around severe weather such as fires and floods that helps save lives and property. Weiser said the administration does not have the authority to dismantle the center.

Editorial read — The Author (site author)
The Author's view is that the country should keep funding shared, university-run weather and climate research infrastructure like NCAR rather than breaking it up, and that terminating research grants on climate topics narrows what the country can learn about its own climate. This is interpretation. A court has found NSF likely acted arbitrarily on one decision, the supercomputer transfer, but has not ruled on the wider plan, and the sources do not show the administration intends to end weather research.

Research notes
Open leads: (1) Whether NSF appealed the June 1, 2026 injunction; (2) status of the plans for NCAR's two aircraft and the Mesa Lab, and of the CU Boulder proposal to take over NCAR's core functions; (3) the UCS blog describing OMB documents is an advocacy source and should be checked against the court filings; (4) the total count of NSF terminations and how many are climate-related is tracker-based and varies by source; (5) the Center Square's report on NCAR is from a conservative-leaning outlet and is used only for the funding and staffing figures.

Note
The White House budget office says NCAR is a source of "climate alarmism" and that vital activities such as weather research would be moved elsewhere. NSF's lawyers say the supercomputer transfer was only a proposal; the court found UCAR likely to succeed on a claim that NSF's decision was arbitrary. The litigation is ongoing and covers only the supercomputer transfer so far.

Sources
[1] Colorado Public Radio: Trump wants to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (https://www.cpr.org/2025/12/17/trump-wants-to-dismantle-national-center-for-atmospheric-research/) · 2025-12-17
[2] The Center Square: Trump administration to dismantle federal climate center (https://www.kpcnews.com/news/national/article_1339daab-b102-5f0d-ba20-d7cf3776358e.html) · 2025-12-19
[3] AIP FYI: The Week of March 23, 2026 (NCAR operator sues NSF and White House) (https://www.aip.org/fyi/the-week-of-march-23-2026) · 2026-03-23
[4] AIP FYI: Judge Temporarily Blocks Transfer of NCAR Supercomputer (https://www.aip.org/fyi/judge-temporarily-blocks-transfer-of-ncar-supercomputer) · 2026-06-04
[5] Colorado Public Radio: Federal judge blocks Trump NCAR dismantle plan (https://www.cpr.org/2026/06/01/federal-judge-blocks-trump-ncar-dismantle-plan/) · 2026-06-01
[6] Sabin Center Climate Litigation Database: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research v. National Science Foundation (https://www.climatecasechart.com/document/university-corporation-for-atmospheric-research-v-national-science-foundation_a1f9?cfn=gas) · 2026-06-01
[7] Union of Concerned Scientists: Documents show real reason why the White House wants to break up NCAR (https://blog.ucs.org/carlos-martinez/documents-show-real-reason-why-the-white-house-wants-to-break-up-ncar/) · 2026-05-07
[8] AIP FYI: NSF Director Resigns Amid Mass Grant Cuts, Looming Layoffs (https://www.aip.org/fyi/nsf-director-resigns-amid-mass-grant-cuts-looming-layoffs) · 2025-04-25
[9] Sabin Center (Columbia): Previously Approved NSF Grants Paused Pending Additional Review (https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/previously-approved-nsf-grants-paused-pending-additional-review) · 2025-05
[10] MIT Technology Review: The Trump administration has shut down more than 100 climate studies (https://technologyreview.com/2025/06/02/1117653/the-trump-administration-has-shut-down-more-than-100-climate-studies/) · 2025-06-02
[11] AGU The Bridge: Science Funding for FY26 Secured (https://thebridge.agu.org/2026/02/05/science-funding-for-fy26-secured/) · 2026-02-05

Connections

Same context — EPA staff, research and budget cuts, and DOGE grant cancellations (2025-2026)
Both cover grant terminations and cuts to federal research with DOGE involvement reported.

Same context — NASA Earth science under pressure: GISS eviction, withheld funds and proposed mission cancellations (2025-2026)
Both involve OMB-driven actions against climate research centers (NCAR and GISS) in 2025-2026.

Same context — Ocean observing under budget pressure: NOAA research cuts, Argo floats and the end of U.S. biogeochemical Argo (2025-2026)
Both cover cuts to climate and weather research infrastructure; UCAR's complaint also alleges NOAA ended a cooperative agreement with UCAR for climate research.