NOAA issued 74% fewer grants in the US — Mongabay
As of September 2, 2026, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had awarded 229 grants — 74% fewer than the average of 891 grants by this date. This was reported by Mongabay, citing a database maintained by the nonprofit organization Grant Witness.
After the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term in 2025, his administration began significantly cutting federal funding, including for NOAA. The agency administers grants for local projects, many of which are aimed at adapting to climate change.
Cancelled grants
NOAA also terminated at least 26 active grants. Among them was $1.2 million in funding for the New Orleans Community Support Foundation. The funds were intended for climate-resilient water resource management, including for Black and Indigenous communities in New Orleans, which regularly suffers from extreme weather events and sea-level rise.
Grant Witness co-founder Scott Delaney noted that the grant provided for infrastructure planning to prevent flooding and address other challenges of living in a coastal area.
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Projects in the Northwest
NOAA also terminated more than $2.5 million in funding for the University of Washington’s Northwest Climate Resilience Collaborative. The grant supported ongoing projects with rural and tribal communities in the US Northwest aimed at increasing resilience to extreme heat, drought and sea-level rise associated with climate change.
According to Grant Witness, this grant was later restored along with three others after lawsuits or pressure from Congress. Delaney warned that funding interruptions could create data gaps, lead to job losses, harm local economies and prompt experienced government scientists to move to other jobs.
Former NOAA head Rick Spinrad suggested that at the beginning of the Trump administration, some artificial intelligence algorithms may have flagged terms such as “indigenous,” “resilience” and “climate change” as warning signals when selecting grants for cancellation. He called such cuts short-sighted and alarming.
