A new committee  has been appointed to gauge and research impact funding or the lack thereof following the recent cuts  that the United States has made to its federal research budgets, some of which affect South Africa. This is according to  South Africa's science Minister  Blade  Ndimande  who told Members of Parliament that a "deeply concerning" 2 billion rand of South African research money is at risk after US president Donald Trump began slashing federal research funding, sending shockwaves through the global research community. Sakina Kamwendo spoke to Veli Mbele, Spokesperson for the Science and Technology Department.