Mr Viral
In line with Trump administration directives, the US government’s National Science Foundation has started canceling grants for studies into workplace diversity and the spread of misinformation.
NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan laid it out plainly in a Friday statement: The federal agency uses just two statutory criteria to judge every funding proposal. First, does it have the potential to advance new knowledge? (What NSF calls “intellectual merit.”) And second, will it have a meaningful impact on the nation and its people? (“broader impacts” in NSF-speak.)
If a proposal doesn’t check both boxes, it doesn’t get the money. And in today’s political climate, that means projects focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are headed for the chopping block, including those trying get more women and members of underrepresented groups to participate in STEM.
For those unfamiliar with the NSF’s role, the agency does not conduct its own research but serves as a federal funding body, allocating public money to support universities, institutions, and small businesses in advancing scientific progress, education, and innovation across the United States.
“Awards that are not aligned with NSF’s priorities have been terminated, including but not limited to those on DEI and misinformation/disinformation,” the NSF said in an FAQ accompanying Panchanathan’s statement.
To make that clearer, the NSF said its “broader impacts” criterion draws from the seven goals laid out in the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010.
These include boosting US economic competitiveness, advancing public health, supporting national defense, strengthening academia-industry ties, developing a globally competitive STEM workforce, improving scientific literacy, and expanding participation of women and underrepresented groups in STEM. The final goal comes with strings attached.
“Investigators should prioritize the first six broader impacts goals,” the NSF said. Anyone looking to tackle that women-and-underrepresented-groups angle will need to tread carefully – the foundation says those efforts must be structured so that “all outreach, recruitment, or participatory activities in NSF projects are open and available to all Americans.”
That’s not to say all awards aimed at expanding STEM participation are getting the ax. According to the NSF, programs “that contain elements of broadening participation based on protected characteristics” can still get funding — so long as they don’t “directly or indirectly preference or exclude any Americans.”
Collaboration with “minority-serving institutions” is still allowed, and research involving protected characteristics is permitted if it’s part of a legally required program or those traits are essential to the research.
As for studying misinformation and disinformation? As we saw at CISA, it’s no longer a priority.
The NSF’s FAQ confirms that, under a presidential action issued by President Trump on January 20, it is stepping back from funding mis/disinformation research under the guise of preserving free speech – echoing language in the Trump memo.
Trump nukes 60 years of anti-discrimination rules for federal contractors
NASA rewrites Moon mission goals in quiet DEI retreat
Revenge of the nerds: Teachers, professors sue to undo Trump science funding cuts
Trump scrubs all mention of DEI, gender, climate change from federal websites
“NSF 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,” the foundation said, leaving aside the irony of the regime claiming to care about “free speech” while detaining foreigners legally in the United States for activities like co-writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in a student newspaper.
The NSF has been under fire from past and present staff after it terminated about 170 employees in late February, following a directive from the Office of Personnel Management issued under by the Trump administration. About half of those let go were reinstated in March after a court ruling and revised OPM guidance. The mass firings, paired with political pressure and shifting funding priorities, have sparked fresh concerns about the future of US scientific leadership.
The NSF didn’t disclose how many grants have been pulled under its new criteria. The foundation declined to comment beyond Panchanathan’s statement and the FAQ, and our sources were unable to immediately respond to questions. ®
PS: US Defense Secretary Peter Signalgate Hegseth reportedly shared detailed military plans in a second separate Signal conversation that included his wife and brother.
