The nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research has filed a motion in federal court aimed at stopping the Trump administration from dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a premier climate research organization operated by UCAR.
The motion, known as a preliminary injunction, asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado to prevent the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies from transferring NCAR’s Wyoming-based supercomputing facility to another operator. NSF announced its intent to change managers for NCAR in February, although it hasn’t yet named the entity that will take over the computing facility.
The motion is the latest twist in a lawsuit filed by UCAR on March 16 that accuses the Trump administration of trying to break up NCAR as part of a retaliation campaign against Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. A Democrat, Polis has defied President Donald Trump’s demands that the state release Tina Peters, a former county clerk who’s serving a prison sentence after giving Trump allies unauthorized access to voting machines following the 2020 presidential election.
The White House Office of Management and Budget announced in December that it would dismantle NCAR and transfer its essential functions to other entities. The National Science Foundation posted a public solicitation in January requesting ideas from agency partners and the research community about restructuring the institution. Its plans for moving the supercomputing facility was announced two months later.
