State Department Poised to Close S&T Cooperation Office

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 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 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 and the European Union.

The office is also involved in managing joint science and technology funds with countries such as Israel, India, and Egypt, as well as the U.S. Science Envoy Program and the Embassy Science Fellows Program, 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.