Ok, let’s say you’re NSF, checking all grants for forbidden things before you begin paying out, which is allowed. You have to start somewhere. Most grants have had money delivered for future, but not these, which means these people aren’t getting paid today, not in August. Maybe start here? - ThreadSky

omearabrian.bsky.social • 28 days ago

Ok, let’s say you’re NSF, checking all grants for forbidden things before you begin paying out, which is allowed. You have to start somewhere. Most grants have had money delivered for future, but not these, which means these people aren’t getting paid today, not in August. Maybe start here?

Reposted from Ben Stone

It’s official: all funding requests made on Tuesday by postdocs for their salaries have been unilaterally rejected by NSF.

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chimaera.bsky.social•28 days ago

I ran federal grants for a quarter of a century and they take YEARS to prepare for and usually YEARS to complete. You cannot pause them without fucking up research data and fucking over everybody hired on a grant. This is efficiency?

emilykane.bsky.social•28 days ago

Good Lord, and I'm guessing the Universities benefiting from these self-funded researchers aren't stepping in to help 😢

omearabrian.bsky.social•28 days ago

It would be great thing to do quietly now, then trumpet later. “ didn’t support scholars when it mattered. But did. We actually care: we put money behind our words!”

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

My fear is that they're checking programs, not grants, and they are planning to eliminate any program where funding decisions took DEI objectives into account, and will stop disbursing any funds associated with those programs.

stairwaytokevin.bsky.social•28 days ago

So far we have no communication if programs or grants are affected. What or who determines compliance, and what really happens with non-compliant awards. I know it's developing and maybe they're trying to play things close to the chest but I really can't help but assume the worst.

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

I don't think they have any interest in reading through every active grant currently funded by the NSF. That's a ton of technical reading, and this review is almost certainly being conducted by political appointees rather than the POs who oversaw the original awards.

stairwaytokevin.bsky.social•28 days ago

Idk could almost imagine screening abstracts with ctrl-f or something

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

Maybe. That aligns with the laziness thing but not necessarily the grievance issue. Additionally, do they just assess the application itself? Letters of reference? Reviewer comments? Discussions from the grant committee? Seems much easier to just decide that the competition itself is in violation

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

Assuming a mix of laziness and grievance, simply shuttering entire programs seems like the likeliest outcome (to me). I would not be shocked if POs have been locked out of communications and many POs might themselves be on the chopping block here.

omearabrian.bsky.social•28 days ago

I really can’t imagine laziness from any of the past or present NSF staff. Jobs are on the line. Being public can cause harm (like the people pointing out programs not shuttered yet). But still lots of people are experiencing harm with no info

omearabrian.bsky.social•28 days ago

External appointees not with experience in science… perhaps very different

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

I have seen absolutely zero indication of a good faith effort to communicate what is being done and what will be done to help support awardees who are suddenly not being paid. I see no reason to assume any of us will see any of this money in the future.

labonnelab.bsky.social•28 days ago

not hard to do with ai

jdpardo.bsky.social•28 days ago

e.g. PRFB's Broadening Participation category could mean that DEI was a consideration in award decisions, so all awards are null and void, and therefore no further funds will be disbursed. This is in line with them blocking current fellowship-holders from drawing on currently-authorized funds.

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