On Wednesday, California joined 15 other states exceeding the National Science Foundation and its acting director, alleging that the agency illegally dismissed millions of dollars in grants and imposed new costs which ended or paralyzed by vital research for health, economics and knowledge of knowledge.
The Trump administration defended its actions both legal and necessary to align the NSF with the president’s priorities.
The trial, submitted to the Federal Court of the South District of New York, specifically targets science foundation to “dismiss subsidies for scientific research which seeks to promote and understand the diversity of higher education and labor”, according to a statement by California Atty. General Rob Bonta.
The pursuit alleys that the actions of the NSF are illegally arbitrary and capricious and that they violate the federal law on the management and use of federal financing.
The Bonta office said that from 1995 to 2017, the number of women in scientific and engineering professions, or with science or engineering diplomas, has doubled with the help of federal support; The minorities, on the other hand, went from around 15% in the professions to around 35%.
The trial also seeks to overthrow the 15% ceiling of the Trump administration on indirect costs related to research, which, according to universities, are crucial to carrying out their work. These indirect costs include maintaining laboratory space, maintaining controlled temperature and appropriate manipulation and elimination of biological, chemical and biochemical materials.
Like other key federal agencies, the National Science Foundation has been in turmoil since Trump took up his duties in January – undergoing financing cuts, layoffs and a reorganization of all interests as well as apparent ideological advertising tests, radical subsidy terminations and a funding for subsidy applications.
The Trump administration retaliated on criticism.
This month, Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, criticized the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the research funded by the federal government, calling them “foreign” in a discourse before the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.
Kratsios has also called for a reduction in “school paperwork” in scientific research, the online information site Fedscoop reported. He said there is a “crisis of confidence in scientists” which comes from fears that political prejudices have an impact on research.
Trump officials have also repeatedly argued that the federal government is prey to waste and fraud.
Federal actions are at extreme costs, said Bonta.
“President Trump wants to make the second level of American universities with his rear efforts to reduce the funding of research that kept us at the forefront of science and innovation,” said Bonta. “For more than 50 years, Congress has expressly authorized the National Science Foundation to train the next generation of talents and to invest in the infrastructure necessary to maintain our position as a world leader” in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
“With the latest series of president Trump’s blind financing cuts, America is about to be delayed on its competitors at a critical time in the world technological race. We are continuing to stop it,” said Bonta.
In California, billions of dollars are threatened in California State University, University of California and Public Community College Systems.
“Many innovations – like the Internet, GPS and MRI technology – find their origins in research initially funded by the NSF. Without funding from the NSF, many Californian colleges and universities will be forced to reduce considerably or stop potentially revolutionary programs and research projects, “according to the Bonta office.
Subsidies at the end of the NSF, for example, include a $ 3 million project over five years, “IT research for actions in the legal system”. This study examined crime data for racial bias models while examining the policies of misconduct and police expulsion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
UC Berkeley’s canceled subsidies included projects on electoral systems and two on the teaching of environmental sciences.
The NSF also told staff to project subsidy proposals for “subjects or activities that may not be aligned with the agency’s priorities” which had moved under the Trump administration, the newspaper Nature reported.
The trial presents a wide range of advantages and objectives of federal funding.
“From the development of AI technology which predicts weather conditions to protect communities, to the development of sustainable solutions for environmental and economic challenges, to make networks more sustainable, research funded by the NSF in American universities guarantee the status of this nation as a world leader in scientific innovation”, according to the trial.
The other states involved in the dispute are Hawaii, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and Washington.
The model of federal cuts and research disorders also takes place with the National Institutes of Health. And California also started on a trial on the cuts on these subsidies.
Tara Kerin, a project scientist working in research on pediatric infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine of the UCLA, said that the financing reductions of the National Science Foundation echo similar to those of the National Institutes of Health.
That, she said, makes her “very nervous about the future of science and research”.
Kerin, whose work was partly concentrated on HIV prevention and detection among young adults, was funded by NIH subsidies – until they are cut this spring.