Matt Carling

NSF plans to reinstate all probationary employees who were fired on 18 Feb!
NSF’s decision. 👏🏻👏🏻❤️

Perspective: What's science worth to you? Holly Jones says cuts at the National Science Foundation will hurt us all.

My perspective on the travesty of firing ~10% of NSF employees last week aired on my local @npr.org station but you all can read it and listen here. www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/20... 🧪.

I highlighted some of the kudos for the terminated POs that @mdcarling.bsky.social spearheaded.

If you'd like the links to any of these boards to contribute your own message, please DM me (I'm hesitant to post them publicly). I hope we can provide our friends and colleagues an outpouring of support in these insane times. Finally, please help me spread the word far and wide. Thank you.
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As a small token of gratitude, Kudoboards have been setup to allow the PI community to give thanks to these tireless public servants, who dedicated their careers not to the pursuit of their own research goals, but to helping us achieve ours.
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As many of you know, ~170 Program Officers at #NSF were fired on Tuesday, including a number that worked in Divisions important to the EEB community (e.g., DEB and GEO/OPP).
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Donate to Help Flocks take flights for ornithologists!, organized by Ashley Dayer We all need a space to feel we belong and where we are supported. This is wh… Ashley Dayer needs your support for Help Flocks take flights for ornithologists!

Hey #ornithologists or really anyone. Help Flocks Take Flight by donating today: www.gofundme.com/f/flocks-for...

National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues Firings at the NSF included permanent employees who had already completed their one-year probationary period, as well as at-will workers.

This is absolutely devastating www.wired.com/story/nation...

An “NSF BY THE NUMBERS” fact sheet screenshot with some facts about “ADVANCING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD” -The U.S. National Science Foundation was created by Congress in_ 1950 to continue the U.S. science and technology enterprise began during World War II. -NSF allocates 94% of its approximately $8.5 billion budget for grants and awards to support research projects, facilities and STEM education. -NSF funds research in all 50 states and U.S. territories. -NSF fosters international scientific collaboration on all 7 continents around the globe. -About 2,000 academic and other private and public institutions across the U.S. conduct NSF-funded research. -NSF supports 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research at U.S. colleges and universities. fundamental research comes from NSF. - In 2020, NSF received approximately 43,000 research proposals from scientists and engineers and funded about 12,000. - NSF-funded researchers have received 248 Nobel Prizes.

Do you want a big overview of NSF, explaining things like the fact that 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research comes from NSF? And that 94% of its budget goes out the door in grants/awards? Here you go. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Factsh...

Heart Shaped image with the words, "Send a Federal Employee a Valentine! Let’s send our federal workers a lift, a laugh and some love. You’ve got broader impacts on our hearts! You’re air-replaceable! Thanks for protecting our planet! Our love for you is highly significant (p < 0.0001)! You rock our world! (And tectonic plates.) You’re TREE-mendous! Thanks for protecting our parks and our hearts!"

Do you know what tomorrow is? It's send a federal worker a valentine day! Our federal employees need a lift, a laugh, and some love. Send over your best federal-agency themed Valentines puns and with @500womensci.bsky.social we’ll launch some templates tonight!

Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database

Is your NSF grant on this list? Reach out if so!

Ted Cruz released a list of grants flagged for DEI or "neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda" from his Oct. report.

NSF is using keywords from that report for their review, though Cruz's list is likely larger.
www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders Information for the NSF community regarding executive orders.

Finally an update from #NSF new.nsf.gov/executive-or...

Why Feds Don’t Strike During the 35-day partial government shutdown, many wondered why workers didn’t just strike. Here’s an explainer.

www.govexec.com/management/2...

What’s more, the Office of Personnel Management can declare an individual who participates in a strike unsuitable for federal employment. Forever.

Driving the point home, 18 U.S.C. §1918 makes it a felony to strike against the United States or belong to a union that asserts the right to strike against the United States.

5 U.S.C. §7311, specifies that federal employees may not participate in a strike, assert the right to strike, or even belong to a union that “asserts the right to strike against the government of the United States.”

All they can do is silently toil while doing the best they can. Likely while trying to suppress and anger, rage, and frustration they might feel at being cutoff from what they love to do - serve the PI community.

But, to me, it seems a nearly impossible situation. NSF employees cannot lobby congress. NSF employees cannot go on strike.

The Implementation of Recent Executive Orders page seemingly hasn’t been updated since it was posted despite the promise that it “is being updated often,” and that questions will be compiled and posted as FAQs.

I’m not trying to suggest that NSF is handling things smoothly or appropriately. Certainly communication could be much better.

Seem possible they could be fired, wholesale, every single one. The entire organization above the level of Program Officer could be gone and not rehired (there’s a federal hiring freeze, I believe). Then what? What’s NSF at that point? Maybe this is crazy talk, but is it?

Also, if I remember correctly, all members of the Senior Executive Service at NSF can basically be fired at any time. Think DDDs, DDs, DADs, ADs. They certainly don’t have union protection. So what happens if they ignore EOs because they want to uphold the COMPETES Act, or other relevant laws?

I am not an attorney, but it seems NSF employees are stuck, which was acknowledged in yesterday’s Science piece. Yes, the COMPETES Act codified many aspects of NSF’s Broaden Participation efforts. But doesn’t violating an EO potentially come with either civil or criminal penalties?

I would imagine that many NSF employees feel the same way, but are prevented from communicating that with the research community and general public. PIs are NSF’s lifeblood and being cutoff from communicating with them must be agonizing for Program Officers.

Obviously, it’s heartbreaking and perhaps criminal that many researchers are in limbo, and some, like PRFB fellows, aren’t getting paid.

Some additional #NSF thoughts. As always, these thoughts are mine alone. But here goes, It seems the damage this situation has already caused to the research enterprise in the US may be catastrophic (and irreparable?).

Research.gov - Homepage Research.gov is a partnership of Federal, research-oriented grant making agencies with a shared vision of increasing customer service for applicants while streamlining and standardizing processes amon...

As others have said, it depends. "Standard" grants mean you (or really your university) got all the money at once. "Continuing" grants get money in increments, typically annual. Anyone should be able to tell by logging into research.gov and checking. Or, your grants office should know, too.

We've just been told that the panel meeting is off for tomorrow as well and I'm hearing all panels are canceled this week 😡

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

This isn't good.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

And if you know a PO, buy them a drink next time you see them. Or maybe not, it's possible that would be construed as an attempt to bribe them.