The National Science Foundation of the United States Government (NSF) has shortened more than three dozen divisions, including its equity unit, while preparing personnel layoffs and firing a billion dollars from recently allocated subsidies. The purge has already triggered legal action and a meticulous examination of the Congress.
Thursday, the Revue Science reported NSF staff have been informed that 37 divisions through the eight administrators of the Federal Agency will be eliminated, accompanied by a certain number of layoffs among its 1,700 employees.
For those who do not know the role of the NSF, the organization does not carry out its own research but serves as a federal financing organization, allocating public funds to support universities, institutions and small businesses to advance scientific progress, education and innovation in the United States.
Current directors and deputies of affected divisions could lose their titles, some possibly mixed elsewhere in the agency or attached in other federal concerts. NSF fields of more than 40,000 subsidies proposals per year, funding approximately a quarter. So far, division directors have had the last word on most prices, according to Science.
Cheatham house rules
The register saw a memorandum of the staff of the director of the management of the Micah Cheatham Foundation which describes the restructuring.
It requires a reduction in the strength of the main executive service which will reduce the number of occupied and vacant positions from 143 to 59, a loss of 84 roles.
The temporary workforce of the NSF should be reduced to 70 employees, from 368 currently. These 70 temporary positions are supposed to support presidential priorities in AI, biotechnology, nuclear energy, quantum science and translational science.
All distant federal workers do not already working full time, in person in a federal building will have to do so by June 16, 2025, limited exceptions. The equity division for excellence in the STEM (EES), which is in the direction of STEM education, will be “Sunset”, with layoffs which will be completed by July 12, 2025.
In addition, the local 3403 section of the American Federation of Government employees has published a statement calling for Cheatham to resign, alleging that the actions described in the memo are illegal.
Eliminated
In response to a request for confirmation of the report, an NSF spokesperson said an update to the statement of the priorities of the Foundation which explains the elimination of the organization of the EAs.
“At the US National Science Foundation, our mission is to promote scientific progress, improve national health and prosperity and protect the security of our nation,” the statement said. “This means making decisions to guarantee that our efforts are aligned with our priorities. Today, we have initiated the reduction in the strength of the equity division for excellence in STEM. NSF is aware of its statutory program obligations and plans to take measures to ensure that they continue.”
NSF reorganization stems from a Restore priorities Last month to comply with the anti-DEI of the Trump administration (diversity, equity and inclusion) orders. The agency Reduce about 10% of its staff in February, with a judge Cancel Move days later.
The news of the latest cuts spread quickly on social networks, the NSF staff with frustration and disbelief.
People are in tears, look at years of their efforts and impacts, often intended for those who most need federal funding, being disintegrated
Tomasz Durakiewicz, Director of the Program for Physics of Condensed Matter, in the Research Division on Foundation materials, said in a post This management of NSF on Friday “announced the destruction of (the Directorate of STEM Education), in particular the EES division”.
“They are decimated, dismissed people, the division has dissolved, the programs and the awards have canceled,” he said. “What is now happening to their mission and all our colleagues, there is shameful and deplorable. People are in tears, look at the years of their efforts and their impact, often addressed to those who need federal funding, to disintegrate.”
Durakiewicz said the details of the NSF restructuring had not been entirely disclosed, adding that the alleged modifications seem to depart from the NSF traditional NSF with university establishments.
“It sends a strong signal that the future NSF will turn away from the service of research and education communities and will focus on the service of the political agenda, faced with the current administration rather than in the academic world,” he said, denouncing the failure of the National Science Board and the Congress to express an opposition to the Cups of the NSF.
About a week ago, the member of the National Science Board Marvi Matos Rodríguez, director of systems engineering, integration and test in Boeing, spoke. In a postShe urged Congress to remember that investment in NSF is “a deposit in American leadership, prosperity and security”.
“In a global race on innovation where talent and technology define force, investing in the NSF is not optional, it is strategic,” she wrote. “This is how we make sure that the United States of America remains in advance, increase our economy and ensure our future.”
Some in the congress also disputed the large NSF cuts. In a May 8 Letter (PDF), a dozen Democratic representatives in the Chamber of Sciences, Espace and Technology Committee asked Brian Stone, Acting Director of the NSF, to explain the cancellation of subsidies by the agency to research institutions.
The cancellation of these awards suggests rather that the NSF is willing to apply the political censorship of the awards under the direction of President Trump and the teenagers DOGE
Certain NSF subsidies linked to diversity were cut in April. On May 2, according to the letter, the NSF had terminated nearly 1,400 subsidies worth more than a billion dollars. The scientific financing organization has also capped the reimbursements of indirect costs to research institutions 15% And Stuck all subsidies.
“The cancellation of these awards rather suggests that the NSF is willing to apply the political censorship of the awards under the direction of President Trump and the teenagers Doge, which constitutes a clear violation of the statutory mission of the agency,” said the letter.
University institutions, already stimulated by the lost funding of the NSF, also retaliate. On Monday, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education and the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, in collaboration with 13 research institutions, continued the Science Foundation before a Federal Court of Massachusetts.
The complainants dispute a reimbursement ceiling, argue He was issued without public opinion or comment and violates the law.
“These reimbursements support the infrastructure that makes scientific research possible,” the complainants said in a joint statement. “This short-sighted decision will harm the American people, weaken our innovation ecosystem and make it more difficult for the United States to compete worldwide.” ®
Do you have a story that must be told? Contact our experienced team with confidence – Here’s how