AIAA SciTech Panel Urges Resilience, “Intentional” Partnering as U.S. Navigates Shifting Research Funding Priorities
ORLANDO—The future of U.S. research funding was debated Tuesday at AIAA SciTech Forum, where academic, industry, and startup space leaders expressed cautious optimism for America’s science and technology innovation pipeline.
The budget picture for NASA and the U.S. Space Force in 2025 saw yearlong continuing resolutions and DOGE canceling or pausing contracts, which together “make it difficult to talk about 2026 relative to 2025,” said Carissa Christensen, founder and CEO of analysis and engineering firm, BryceTech, and an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School.
In the past week, the House and Senate passed a NASA appropriations bill that signals a status quo outcome rather than steep cuts. Space Policy online reported on 4 January that the House and Senate Appropriations Committees had rejected the Trump administration’s 24.3% cut, calling for a reduction of $400 million from NASA’s $24.8 billion FY2025 budget in appropriations.
The reconciliation bill establishing long-term funding targets and mandatory expenditure areas for different agencies, including $2.5 billion in new NASA funding and $10 billion for the Space Force Golden Dome could be “a gamechanger,” she added.
Observing how much the federal acquisitions process has changed in the last year, Christensen said, “Longstanding relationships have been disrupted. The change has created opportunities to build relationships with new actors who are managing the process.”
Tim Lieuwen, Regents’ Professor, David S. Lewis Jr. Chair, and executive vice president for Research at Georgia Tech, noted that despite disruptions and some program cancellations, there’s still “a lot of money sloshing around in the system.” He differentiated between “top-line dollars” and unpredictable timing in cash flows, with sudden surges like the record August seen at Georgia Tech as federal agencies hurried to allocate FY25 funds.
Lieuwen is very aware of the challenges research leaders face as they navigate political priorities, scientific innovation, and the aerospace research community in shaping the future of public and private research funding.
He called on academic colleagues to find ways to support the push in government for acquisition reform. At the same time, “long-term capability development and building foundations and even basic discovery are also really important.”
“It’s not an either/or…it’s about how we….synergistically bring those together,” he said.
A third panelist, Camille Alleyne, founder and CEO of Arusha Space LLC – focused on AI-driven autonomy for space missions – provided a startup perspective. Alleyne previously worked for 30 years at NASA, where she oversaw the commercial LEO development program for commercial space stations.
“A lot of startups that began as space startups exclusively are trying to see how they pivot or expand their capabilities because…the money… is in the defense budget,” she observed, adding, “We’re not interested in research projects, but we are interested in those capabilities and those areas that have the potential to be scaled.”
She observed that there is a perception that the research community and industry compete, a perception reinforced when NASA and DoD put out RFPs that are open to everyone.
Collaboration was a recurring theme. Alleyne advocated for more intentional partnerships between the research community and early-stage ventures: “The research community can really help industry and early venture startups by de-risking technologies and helping us translate from that research into products and production and being able to scale.”
Lieuwen underscored that “foundational research is clearly an enabling infrastructure for national competitiveness, but it’s most defensible when it’s embedded in institutions that also deploy, when it’s connected to real missions, and to real users.” He emphasized the unique position of the aerospace community as a model for integrating academia, government, and commercial partners.
Christensen urged organizations to update their expertise for the changing government acquisition landscape. “Success as a research institution, success as a government contractor or as a company with the government as a customer, fundamentally… is market. In that interaction with the acquisition process, that is where success happens, ultimately.”
The panel did not shy away from broad challenges beyond budgets, including public perception. “It’s part of [faculty’s] responsibility to talk at their local elementary and high school, to participate in science fairs, because the public doesn’t really understand a lot of [what we do],” Lieuwen said.
All agreed that, despite profound uncertainty and ongoing debates over policy priorities, the U.S. innovation engine remains resilient. Lieuwen urged the young researchers at AIAA SciTech not to let the chaos of the last nine months sway them from remaining in science. “You’re going to have a ton of opportunities.”
Christensen urged everyone to keep the dialogue alive and at the forefront to ensure research investment and innovation remain priorities in the face of shifting political and economic winds.
AIAA SciTech attendee Diane Howard, former director of Commercial Space Policy at the National Space Council and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas in Austin, welcomed the panel’s candid and optimistic outlook.
“I took away that I’m not the only person that’s looking for a way to be constructive in today’s environment,” she said.
