We are a collective of scientists and allies organizing to defend the NIH and science. 

We believe scientific discovery and progress depends on academic freedom, freedom of thought and speech, democratic accountability, public transparency, and strong scientific institutions. 

At a time when the U.S. scientific research enterprise is under sustained political attack, we believe it is essential to build new alliances to defend science — alliances across academic fields and career stages, and alliances between scientists and the public. We believe it is critical to strengthen support amongst the public, get good information about science to the public, and respond directly and honestly to public attacks from those who would control or hobble science. We are inspired by Vannevar Bush’s 1945 vision for scientific research as a public-university partnership, and believe that we should renew this vision with a greater commitment to democratic accountability, a marketplace of ideas unbiased by money, and academic freedom.

We believe that large parts of science are a public good that only governments are in a position to  support.

We believe that democracy — the distribution of influence over many people — pushes back on concentrated power and therefore is key to a robust scientific enterprise.

History

In early 2025, a half-dozen NIH and NIH-funded scientists got together, found we shared these values, and began working together to defend NIH and the US scientific enterprise. Many of us are named or anonymous signers of the Bethesda Declaration.

If you’d like to join us, please follow us on social media and subscribe to our blog at https://scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com. We’ll share more information there. Or contact us directly.

SAFA is a grassroots informal group. Many of us retain our affiliation to NIH and so we are not now disclosing our identities. All work here is done in our personal capacities in our personal time. Contact our leadership team at info@scienceandfreedomalliance.org or via form below.