Science in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: 22% of participants in that nation said they had ‘no trust at all’ in science in 2025. Credit: Thomas Imo/Photothek via Getty

Trust in science and researchers has fallen following the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest survey of public confidence in science shows. Led by the global biomedical funder Wellcome in London and published on 10 October, it explores how people feel about science and health — including vaccines, pandemic preparedness , clean energy and, for the first time, artificial intelligence (see ‘Trust in decline’).

“We should be paying attention to, and thinking about, what needs to be done to earn that trust,” says Philippa Michael, head of public initiatives at Wellcome, who led the project.…