We investigate decoupling abstractions, by which we seek to simulate (i.e. abstract) a given system of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by another system that features completely independent (i.e. uncoupled) sub-systems, which can be considered as separate systems in their own right. Beyond a purely mathematical interest as a tool for the qualitative analysis of ODEs, decoupling can be applied to verification problems arising in the fields of control and hybrid systems. Existing verification technology often scales poorly with dimension.