New database tracks canceled N.S.F. research grants
beSpacific 2025-04-29
New database tracks canceled N.S.F. research grants, The University Daily Kansan. April 25, 2025. A crowdsourced database is helping researchers at the University of Kansas and other institutions in the U.S. make sense of contradictory information put out by news agencies and the National Science Foundation after the federal government began canceling N.S.F. research grants last week. The public database, compiled by Noam Ross, executive director of the nonprofit rOpenSci, and Scott Delaney, a researcher at Harvard University, was launched on Friday night and tracked over 430 terminated grants within days, all of which had been cancelled last week. “Word has gotten out and a lot of people have gotten information to us,” Ross said. He and Delaney used Bluesky, LinkedIn, Reddit and email networks to share the database with researchers who could self-report their terminated grants, which they then vetted. Based on available information, Ross said he thinks the list is comprehensive. Ross and Delaney began compiling a similar list on cancelled NIH grants a few weeks ago, he said. Confusion began last Wednesday when the scientific journal Nature reported that the N.S.F. was freezing all grants that had been approved for funding but not yet awarded. On Friday, however, the N.S.F. clarified that it was only freezing those grants that did not align with the Trump administration’s executive orders on “diversity, equity and inclusion” (D.E.I.) and “misinformation.” Ashley Muddiman, a professor and researcher at KU who has studied political misinformation, said that the reasons for grant cancellations have been vague and confusing, leaving many researchers in the dark. In an FAQ, the N.S.F. said that it “will not support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation’ that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens.” Another researcher at KU who studies misinformation declined to be interviewed for this story, citing legal concerns surrounding their terminated grant. “There’s absolutely a chilling effect,” Muddiman said. Ross said his database is helping get this information out, and that when a researcher fills out the form to add their cancelled grant to the list, they are asked if they would be willing to speak to the media. Some do and some don’t, for various reasons, he said, including the protection of legal appeals. “There is a mix,” he said, “but there is a climate of fear.” Ross and Muddiman were both clear about the effect these cancellations have on students as well as researchers. “It’s hovering over everyone,” Muddiman said. “It’s affecting researchers. It’s affecting students because if the research isn’t getting done, we can’t share that knowledge with students on campus.” Ross said the message he gets from this data is that students will suffer the greatest impacts from these grant terminations.