Jim O’Neill, a biotechnology investor who has held other positions in government, will be appointed by US President Donald Trump to run the US National Science Foundation.Credit: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg/Getty
US President Donald Trump plans to nominate biotechnology investor Jim O’Neill to be the next leader of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a White House spokesperson confirmed to Nature. The NSF, one of the largest funders of basic US research, has been without a permanent head since April 2025 when director Sethuraman Panchanathan abruptly resigned as the Trump administration cut hundreds of the agency’s research grants and proposed a massive budget cut.
Hundreds more NSF grants terminated after agency director resigns
O’Neill left his post as the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week. That position will now be taken up by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) director Jayanta Bhattacharya.
“Both are eminently qualified for these positions, and the White House has confidence in them to deliver on the President’s agenda,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement. The NSF — currently led by Brian Stone, who is the agency’s chief of staff — declined to comment. The shakeup was first reported by The New York Times.
If confirmed by the US Senate, O’Neill would be the first non-scientist or engineer to lead the NSF. He is no stranger to government roles, though: he has served in administrative positions at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the parent agency of the CDC and the NIH.
“His background is very different from that of his predecessors, all of whom were scientists or engineers and had R&D experience,” says Neal Lane, who led the NSF from 1993-98 under former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat. “That will be a major concern of the [science and technology] community, including tech companies large and small, which depend on the discoveries and new technologies that emerge from NSF-funded research,” Lane adds.
Facing headwinds
O’Neill would inherit an agency facing big headwinds. Over the past year, it has lost some 30% of its staff members through early retirements and lay-offs, part of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce the federal workforce. Its headcount is now 1,198, down from 1,717 in September 2024. The remaining employees are currently working remotely because the NSF had to vacate its custom building in December to make room for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last year, after the Trump administration proposed cutting the NSF’s budget by 57%, the agency faced fiscal uncertainty, and funded about 20% fewer new research grants than in 2024.
Exclusive: ex-CDC director talks about why she was fired
Many staff members and scientists who depend on the agency breathed a sigh of relief last month, when the US Congress rejected that proposed cut, keeping funding essentially flat.
O’Neill holds humanities degrees from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Chicago. As a senior HHS official in the administration of Republican president George W. Bush from 2002-08, he was a speechwriter and helped craft health policy for agencies such as the NIH and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
O’Neill then moved into the private sector, where he worked closely with billionaire investor Peter Thiel. In 2010, he helped Thiel to found the Thiel Fellowship, a programme that now awards US$200,000 grants to students to drop out of school and pursue entrepreneurship, including in science and technology.
