The National Science Foundation canceled all of its grant review panels this week, as the organization works to align its grantmaking process with new executive orders from the Trump administration. The NSF funds a wide range of scientific research through grants to universities and research institutions. It convenes panels of experts to weigh the merits of those proposals, ultimately informing which receive federal funding.
It has a budget of around $9 billion. More than 60 of those meetings were scheduled for this week, all of which were abruptly canceled Monday morning. The move sparked confusion among panelists as to the extent of the pause.
In a statement to NPR, an NSF spokesperson said that all review panels will be rescheduled. "This will allow the agency to make the best use of everyone's time and resources as we continue to develop guidance to ensure compliance with the recent executive orders." Romi Burks, a biologist at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, had spent weeks preparing to serve on her NSF panel.
"It's a considerable amount of effort," she said. "It's extremely disappointing for it to be canceled for political reasons." Delays in grant approval inevitably mean delays in funding research.
Those delays could threaten the scientists, who include tenured faculty, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students who often depend on grants for financial support. Delays also create extra uncertainty that makes it hard to plan, says Burks. Researchers .
