[Moller] Fwd: [EXTERNAL] State Department Poised to Close S&T Cooperation Office

Wed May 7 17:08:38 EDT 2025

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: 	[EXTERNAL] State Department Poised to Close S&T Cooperation 
Office
Date: 	Wed, 7 May 2025 20:57:47 +0000
From: 	FYI <fyi at aipcomm.org>
Reply-To: 	FYI <fyi at aipcomm.org>
To: 	benesch at jlab.org

State Department Poised to Close S&T Cooperation Office

FYI: Science Policy News from AIP
BULLETIN

May 7, 2025

State Department Poised to Close S&T Cooperation Office
Lindsay McKenzie 
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/International scientific collaboration agreements could face 
significant disruption or delay if plans to eliminate the office go 
forward./
A screenshot of the State Department's S&T Coordination Office.
A screenshot of the State Department’s S&T Coordination Office. State 
Department

The State Department plans to eliminate its Office of Science and 
Technology Cooperation as part of a sweeping reorganization at the 
agency, current and former staff members at the department told FYI/./
Thousands of scientific collaboration agreements between the U.S. and 
foreign countries are negotiated and overseen by the office, including 
agreements that allow U.S. researchers to access international science 
facilities such as CERN and ITER. While some of these agreements 
automatically renew, others will lapse without intervention, potentially 
disrupting international research collaborations and data sharing 
agreements as well as research facility access abroad.
Staff at the office were told in late April that their unit would most 
likely be closed and their positions terminated as part of the 
department-wide reorganization effort 
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announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 22. A final 
decision is expected later this month and would take effect July 1. 
Unlike some other science offices at the department that are rumored to 
be facing consolidation, such as the Office of the Science and 
Technology Advisor and the Office of the Special Envoy for Critical and 
Emerging Technology, there are no apparent plans to merge or reorganize 
the cooperation office into another unit.
“There are grave concerns about how the work will proceed,” said a State 
Department employee who requested anonymity to speak freely about 
internal discussions. “It is completely unclear which office will take 
on this work and how they would have the bandwidth and authority to do so.”
When senior department officials told staff the cooperation office was 
earmarked for elimination, the news came as a surprise, multiple sources 
told FYI. The employee quoted above described the decision as 
“baffling,” given how much the Trump administration claims to support 
American leadership in the technology space.
“The president himself has stressed the importance of emerging 
technology, and some of the foremost government experts in fields like 
quantum and biotech are part of the Office of Science and Technology 
Cooperation,” the employee said. They added that the office is the only 
part of the State Department that works with all federal science 
agencies to “make sure that our approach to international work is 
thorough and covers the broad scope of American science and tech 
priorities.”
“To say that another office — which is probably already operating on a 
shoestring budget — can simply take on the work is laughable,” the 
employee said.
The office has around 20 staff members who are a mixture of foreign 
service and civil service officers, contractors, and fellows, some with 
more than a decade of experience. While the foreign service officers may 
be reassigned to new roles 
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if their positions are eliminated, the rest of the staff are set to lose 
their jobs.
Some staff members told FYI they are already looking for new employment 
but are hopeful that the department might reverse course. No staff 
contacted by FYI have yet received written notice of their termination.
A State Department spokesperson did not confirm whether the office is in 
line for elimination, stating simply that the secretary of state has 
asked the under secretaries to draw up reorganization and workforce 
optimization plans to be reviewed this month.
Science and technology agreements set to expire over the next 12-18 
months include ones with countries such as Japan, Egypt, Oman, 
Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan, Tunisia, and the UAE. Though some of 
these will renew automatically, the employee said the absence of the 
office means the U.S. will lose its ability to negotiate changes and 
“ensure we have the right protections for research security, the best 
access to data, and the best way forward for advancing emerging 
technology.” Some of the most high-profile agreements that the office 
oversees do not auto-renew, including those with China 
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and the European Union.
The office is also involved in managing joint science and technology 
funds with countries such as Israel, 
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India, 
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and Egypt, 
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as well as the U.S. Science Envoy Program 
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and the Embassy Science Fellows Program, 
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among others. It is unclear what will happen to these programs if the 
office is eliminated.
The cooperation office is “one of those tiny supports upon which the 
majority of major international science projects rest,” said Cole 
Donovan, a former long-time employee of the office, in a social media 
post last week. In addition to U.S. researchers potentially losing 
access to international facilities, Donovan warned that the closure of 
the office could potentially pause progress on major science facilities 
under construction in the U.S. if agreements covering international 
financial contributions are not completed.
Speaking to FYI, Donovan noted that the Case-Zablocki Act requires that 
federal agencies consult with the State Department before entering into 
any international agreements representing the United States. All of the 
agreements that touch on science, with the exception of those related to 
space, come through the cooperation office for review. Science 
agreements represent one of the largest categories of international 
agreements that the department reviews, Donovan said, as so many involve 
information sharing or have to be checked to ensure they protect 
American intellectual property rights.
Asked about the potential fallout of eliminating the office, Donovan 
said he was concerned that the loss of rapid and routine approval for 
international scientific relationships could have widespread 
implications that may not be immediately obvious. The U.S. has 
agreements with international forecasting and emergency management 
organizations, for example, which “if not maintained, could damage the 
ability of scientists to share timely emergency information in response 
to natural disasters,” he said.
“I think the impact is probably going to be much larger than people 
expect, and not necessarily in ways that people might think about,” 
Donovan added.

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