Chemistry For Your Life What is going on with science funding??
Feb 13, 2025
They unpack recent executive orders reshaping science funding and why researchers are scrambling. Listeners hear how paused grants ripple through universities, threatening jobs, hiring, and student opportunities. The conversation spotlights DEI language in funding, data on underrepresentation in chemistry faculty, and the historical causes behind those disparities.
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NSF Broader Impacts Rule Affects Every Grant
- The NSF requires every grant to include a Broader Impacts section assessing societal benefits, including expanding participation of underrepresented groups in STEM.
- This legal requirement (added by Congress, effective 2011) means DEI-related language appears in nearly all NSF proposals, even for basic lab research.
Indirect Costs Fund University Operations
- Universities keep about a third of grant awards as indirect costs to cover overhead like facilities, safety officers, and hazardous waste disposal.
- That overhead is a major income stream for institutions, so frozen grants threaten university budgets beyond individual labs.
Grant Review Triggers Broad Academic Job Uncertainty
- Freezing or reviewing NSF grants causes cascading effects: paid researchers, postdocs, and undergraduate positions may be threatened and hiring/postdoc offers are being paused.
- Faculty, especially junior faculty on the tenure track and students seeking grad positions, face major career uncertainty.