Post

David Sanders
@davidsanderssci.bsky.social

“I really feel as if the administration is engaged in reverse alchemy, and it’s turning America’s scientific gold into lead,” says David Sanders, a sleuth and biologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.comResearch-integrity sleuths say their work is being ‘twisted’ to undermine scienceSome sleuths fear that the business of cleaning up flawed studies is being weaponized against science itself.
Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com

I'm writing an NSF grant proposal now. How do I justify spending my time writing proposals to an agency that is targeted for a greater than 50% budget cut, has made almost no new awards in 2026, and clearly is being destroyed from the inside out according to the Russ Vought playbook?

Mary Feeney
@mkfeeney.bsky.social

I'm not writing NSF grant proposals. Partly bc of uncertainty, but mostly out of protest & not wanting to participate in an unfair, broken system. I'm lucky to have a good job & other avenues for data collection & research production, but it def means not funding PhD students in foreseeable future

Carl T. Bergstrom
@carlbergstrom.com

Probably not good news that upon reaching out to the program officer, I was told — for the first time in 25 years — that program officers are not taking calls from applicants.

Mary Feeney
@mkfeeney.bsky.social

honestly, I'm not sure what you would gain from a phone call anyway. My understanding is they have no idea what is going on, what will happen, who is making priorities, when reviews will happen, if there will be money, & so on. Welcome to year 2 of the Russ Vought 'put them in trauma' agenda

Terry McGlynn
@hormiga.bsky.social

Because at this moment what our national scientific apparatus needs (among other things) is continued pressure for public funding, and submitted proposals is a critical component of that pressure. And also NSF is running panels and awards are in the pipeline for funding.

Britt Lundgren
@brittlundgren.bsky.social

Despite the circulating rumors, I found no evidence of NSF withholding awards when I looked at the data in March (at least for AST). The NSB asked about this as well in their last meeting & were told funding is on track. Most NSF awards go out the door at the end of the fiscal year (~Aug).

Dan Garisto
@dangaristo.bsky.social

Funding is neither zero nor on track.

Dan Garisto@dangaristo.bsky.social

Update on NSF grant funding: As of April 27, NSF has spent money on 737 new grants for FY26. Avg. for '21–25 at this point is 3303, so NSF is at about 22%. grant-witness.us/funding_curv...

Nooman Haque
@noomanhaque.bsky.social

whilst I don't want to underplay threats to democracy; erosion or norms/decency etc. it does seem like the war on science is the most damaging, most irreversible & most stupid

Mr Blifil
@mrblifil.bsky.social

Until some whistleblowers are really ready to upend their lives by coming forward with what they went through, this will simply continue to happen.

Patti T.
@ptuller.bsky.social

They're gonna have a very hard time reconciling the messages from there to their own attitudes about taking care of neighbors, following false prophets, and following those Tablets Moses got...

Harry
@referencehs.bsky.social

You know you are in trouble when they go after journalists, teachers and scientists. This regime has good reasons (to them) to get rid of anyone knowledgeable.

Joelelan
@typomaker.bsky.social

So next week the NSB was set to release a “state of science” in the US report that was going to say we are ceding innovation ground to China. This timing is CLEARLY to avoid that report being released. Additionally, the NSB is under the authority of Congress. It is ILLEGAL for Trump to do this.

James 🧠 🫀 👋🏼 🌿
@jameslittlewood.bsky.social

Forgive me if this is a naive question from a non USA guy, but if he has no authority over the board, what’s to stop them from simply carrying on? What would they even bother listening? If he can’t sack them, then they haven’t been sacked, right?