The National Science Foundation (NSF) has spent decades—and billions of dollars—trying to attract more women and members of underrepresented groups into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
Not anymore.
Today NSF announced such efforts “are no longer aligned with its priorities” and that it is terminating any existing grant designed to improve the demographics of the scientific workforce. Grants related to “misinformation/disinformation” are also being axed.
NSF declined to answer a query from Science about how many awards are being killed and their monetary value. But one source told Science the agency’s $1.1 billion education directorate may have canceled as many as 200 grants just today. The $9 billion agency currently funds more than 30,000 research projects.
The trigger is a 21 January executive order from President Donald Trump (E.O. 14173) requiring every federal agency “to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements.” NSF has decided the order applies to any awarded grant that advances one criterion used by reviewers in deciding whether the project should be funded: “expanding participation in STEM for women and underrepresented groups.”
Despite long-standing legal mandates from Congress to do exactly that, NSF now says in a statement posted on its website that such efforts violate the president’s directive banning research that relates to so-called “protected characteristics”—such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or age. The research, NSF explains, “should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups,” adding that “projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities.”
NSF says it’s OK to research technologies to help those with disabilities if the project “fills an important gap” in what’s known about the subject. But a training program serving only those with a disability would not be acceptable because it would be based on “broadening participation in STEM on the basis of a protected characteristic.” Going forward, NSF says it will only fund research projects that “create opportunities for all Americans everywhere, without exclusion of any groups.”
In addition, the agency says it will “not support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation’ that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”
Today’s announcement does not come as a complete surprise. Shortly after Trump took office, NSF began to vet pending proposals for key words that might invoke the wrath of the new administration. On Monday three members of billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency set up shop at the agency. And on Wednesday NSF announced it was returning all grant proposals previously approved for funding and awaiting final signoff to the program officers who oversaw the initial review for a second review. In the meantime, according to sources, NSF will not make any new awards.
More: https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-starts-kill-grants-violate-trump-s-war-diversity-efforts
