NSF begins terminating select grant funding

The National Science Foundation is moving to terminate some of the grant funding it allocated toward projects which are no longer aligned with the agency’s mission.

Announced on Friday, the NSF clarified that its mission promotes “the progress of science, advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and secure the national defense,” and will be rescinding awards that fund any research outside of this scope.

“NSF will continue to support research with the goal of understanding or addressing participation in STEM, in accordance with all applicable statutes and mandates, with the core goal of creating opportunities for all Americans,” NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said in a statement. 

In the same statement, the NSF noted in a series of “frequently asked questions” that specific grants being terminated include those deemed to focus on “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.”

Moving forward, NSF will prioritize funding research projects that adhere to the focus areas outlined in the American Competes Reauthorization Act of 2020.

These six focus areas include increasing U.S. economic competitiveness; advancing public health and welfare; supporting national defense; enhancing academia and industry partnerships; enhancing the STEM education system; improving public science literacy; and expanding women and minority group’s participation in STEM.

The announcement of grant terminations also clarified that NSF will continue supporting and operating programs that focus on broadening participation in STEM opportunities for individuals with legally protected characteristics. It attempts to differentiate ensuring broad access to scientific research funding from DEI-based advocacy through alignment with NSF priorities and the potential impact a given research project may have. 

“Projects submitted to legally mandated broadening participation programs must not directly or indirectly preference or exclude any Americans on the basis of protected characteristics,” the announcement said. “Projects that have limited impact or rely on DEI frameworks or advocacy do not effectuate NSF priorities.”

Despite the removal of DEI-based research, the announcement further confirmed that grantees can still perform work with participation alongside Minority Serving Institutions. Research that intends to study a group of legally protected individuals will also not suffer funding cancellations. 

The NSF funding for projects focused on anything deemed related to mis- and disinformation will also be terminated pursuant to one of President Donald Trump’s early January executive actions.

“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 across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the announcement said. 

Topics like DEI have been caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s larger overhaul of federal government operations. Federal personnel in roles that focused on executing select DEI frameworks and activities were fired in January, prompting major federal contractors to follow suit and halt projects with a basis on DEI programming.