In an exclusive article released on Thursday 1 May, Nature reported interesting news about the status of funding at the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
NSF staff members, who were not named in the Nature article, received an email on Wednesday 30 April, directing them to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice”. No reason for the freeze was provided in the email; however, the email allegedly indicated that new research award funding and sub-awards for existing grants were to be suspended. The good news is that, according to the Nature report, NSF funding awardees who have already received their grant funds should not be affected by the freeze.
Prior to the email announcing the funding freeze, NSF leaders had also initiated a policy allowing staffers to begin screening grant proposals. More specifically, NSF staff members have been directed to return proposals to applicants if they are deemed to misalign with NSF priorities. One major problem with this change is that it essentially nullifies aspects of the merit-review process that has been established as the gold standard at the NSF for decades.
The author of the Nature report also revealed that approximately 380 grants were terminated on Friday 2 May. According to the same author, the total number of grants terminated at NSF has reached 1,425 in the past three months, which is an obvious point of concern.
An additional concern is the cryptic nature of communication between NSF leaders, staffers, and the public. The recently announced policies and practices have not officially been made public by NSF, leaving the public to rely on secondary information, such as the Nature report referenced herein.
It should be noted that NSF’s funding review process has not been updated on their website nor have they posted official announcements about the funding freeze that was announced to staffers via email on Thursday. It is not clear who is behind the recent changes, especially because former NSF director Sethuraman Panchanatha resigned on Thursday 24 April.
Click here to read the original Nature article referenced herein.