DOGE’s orders threaten NSF grants and proposals

Some grant proposals submitted to the US National Science Foundation (NSF) are now in limbo after three members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived at the agency on April 14. In addition, DOGE and the agency are considering terminating more than 200 active research grants, according to NSF staffers. Terminations could begin as soon as today.

The employees, who all insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press, say DOGE has instructed the funding agency to send proposals that had already been recommended for award but were awaiting final processing back to their assigned program officers. It’s unclear how many proposals were affected.

NSF program officers weren’t given any guidance on what to do with these returned proposals, though they expect further instruction next week. NSF staff members tell C&EN that they expect a “mitigation step” that will ensure the proposals are compliant with executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump, including one that aims to eliminate government programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

“Certainly, in the years that I've been at NSF, this step has never crossed my radar before,” one NSF employee says. “So it seems unusual, to put it mildly.”

Typically, once a proposal has progressed through the NSF’s rigorous review process and is recommended for funding, the decision is approved by division directors and proposals are sent to the NSF's Division of Grants and Agreements (DGA). That’s where the affected proposals resided before the DOGE officials sent them back.

But the DGA usually sends awards back to their divisions only if they contain budgetary or legal errors. "I would say a maybe a few percent get bounced back for corrections, typically,” a second NSF employee says. “And DGA never undermines a decision that the division director makes without a really good reason.”

While program officers work through the returned grant proposals, some employees say they have been told by division leaders that the NSF will not be making any new awards. An NSF spokesperson tells C&EN that the agency is continuing to issue awards but declines to answer additional questions.

“I’m most concerned that program directors will be asked to decline proposals for reasons that have nothing to do with the review process,” a third NSF employee says.

Meanwhile, DOGE and the agency are reviewing a list of active grants containing words associated with DEI. Some employees expect hundreds of grants are expected will be terminated as early as today. “It could happen anytime now,” a fourth NSF employee says.

Under normal circumstances, awards are terminated only “because there’s been some fraud, waste, or abuse,” the employee says.

The review of active grants appears to be a continuation of an evaluation of NSF research grants and solicitations that occurred in February. That month, Nature reported that the NSF flagged around 10,000 grants because they contained certain keywords related to DEI. Many of these keywords were also listed in an October 2024 report released by Senator Ted Cruz. The report sought to convince some people that some NSF funding prioritized “left-wing” stances.

But US representative Zoe Lofgren has since analyzed Cruz’s report and says it’s deeply flawed. In a letter sent on April 17 to NSF director Sethuraman Panchanathan, Lofgren urged the director to “disregard its so-called findings in your grantmaking decisions.”

The NSF has been through turbulent times since Trump was elected. The NSF previously froze all grant funds and fired its probationary employees, though both moves were eventually reversed after court orders. The agency has also slashed the number of its Graduate Research Fellowship Program awardees by half and disbanded its advisory committees, which help the NSF prioritize its funding efforts.

“Now we’re canceling awards. This affects everyone—all our research communities out there,” the second NSF employee says. “This is completely destroying the morale at the agency.”