The National Science Foundation announced Feb. 12 that it is shifting management of the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center from the National Center for Atmospheric Research to a “third-party operator,” the latest step in an effort by the Trump administration to break up the world-class lab based in Boulder.
The transition has not yet taken place, and the NSF did not provide a timeline.
“NSF is working with all parties to ensure continuity of operations, and additional information will be shared as it becomes available,” according to a press release.
Last month, the NSF published a letter asking the scientific community for feedback on the best way to “restructure” NCAR, inviting proposals for new public or private ownership of NCAR’s Mesa Laboratory in Boulder and soliciting information about what work at NCAR may be “duplicative.”
The deadline to provide feedback is March 13, and scientists and advocates have urged the scientific community to respond, viewing the feedback window as an opportunity to communicate the importance of climate modeling and weather research for both industry progress and public safety.
But in that letter, the NSF stated that the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center and two research aircraft were “being considered separately from this [Dear Colleagues Letter].”
NCAR spokesperson David Hosansky said NCAR had no comment at the time of this release.
Trump administration privatizing key scientific research institutions to enrich his billionaire buddies. Just like they let Musk take over NASA, this will make a few corporations wealthy beyond measure while limiting access to what should be public data. Once gone this cant be clawed back. This isnt the same as tech bros who played with DARPA research and created new technologies and uses. This is the taking of public research and privatizing it for the financial benefit of a handful of corporations.
Here is a video of various scientists giving there praise for NCAR and how it has shaped many professional’s careers over decades.
https://youtu.be/pT8dCoZgH_M
Terrific video, Daniel, thanks for sharing. I’ll pass it forward.