🔦 SPOTLIGHT ON NSF: Scientific Community Fights for NSF

It has been a particularly challenging few months for the National Science Foundation (NSF), between a massive, proposed budget cut, removal of members of the National Science Board (NSB), and the proposal to eliminate the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE). The research community has spent much of the Spring pushing back and urging Congress to defend NSF. 

Saving the SBE Directorate

COSSA along with our many partners across the STEM enterprise have been working tirelessly to urge Congress to reject the President’s proposal to eliminate the SBE Directorate in FY 2027. With House and Senate appropriators currently at work on their FY 2027 funding bills, we have been busy meeting with Congressional offices to make the case about the importance of SBE and social and behavioral science generally.

We are fortunate to have dedicated partners across the sciences who are willing to assist in our efforts. Earlier this month, about 40 scientific societies spanning the physical, biological, and computer sciences, mathematics, and engineering fields signed a letter to the House and Senate appropriations committees urging them to reject the President’s proposal in their FY 2027 appropriations bills (see related articles). The letter states, “Many of the nation’s most pressing policy questions have a scientific or technological component that needs to be understood through a human lens, including through integrated modeling and design approaches that combine technical systems with human behavior. That is where the research that SBE supports comes into play, providing crucial data and theoretical frameworks that inform work across the entire research enterprise, including the biological, computer and information sciences, engineering, and the mathematical and physical sciences.”

Another letter sent recently to Capitol Hill notes, “SBE research is a force multiplier for federal investments in science and technology. Advances in artificial intelligence, public health, energy, cybersecurity, and defense depend not only on technical breakthroughs, but also on understanding how individuals, organizations, and societies respond to new technologies and policies.”

COSSA is collecting these and other statements in support of SBE on our Save SBE website. 

National Science Board

As previously reported, in April the Trump Administration dismissed all 22 members of the National Science Board, the policymaking and oversight body of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Here, too, the scientific community has responded in force, calling on Congress to assert its oversight authority by directing NSF to explain this decision and, as recommended by some groups, reverse it. In addition to countless statements issued in response to the action, including one by COSSA, is a letter signed by former NSF directors and NSB chairs as well as an open letter led by members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Democrats in the House and Senate have also sent letters to the Administration requesting answers to several questions about move, including the legal and constitutional basis for the terminations and information on how the decision was made.

NSF Director

NSF has been without a confirmed director for more than a year. This coupled with the firing of the National Science Board means that all of the decisions being made at NSF, including reorganization, the proposal to eliminate the SBE Directorate, changes to the merit review process, and the move to new office space, are being directed by acting leadership and the White House.

The President nominated Jim O’Neill earlier this year to be the next NSF director. O’Neill is not the typical pick for the NSF post as he does not come from the scientific community and does not appear to have experience in basic science. Given how little is known about O’Neill and his plans for NSF, advocates have been urging Congress to hold a hearing with the nominee before a confirmation vote. NSF director nominees traditionally have not had confirmation hearings, although previous nominations were of individuals already familiar with NSF.

Reorganization

After more than nine months, NSF finally released details of its reorganized directorate leadership. As COSSA as been reporting, NSF’s interim leadership made several changes to across the agency over the last year, including the removal of “rotators” from supervisory positions. Most recently, rotators comprised six of the eight assistant directors leading NSF’s directorates. Under the new structure, which was said to have been implemented last August but not made public until recently, rotators have been removed from their leadership roles and replaced with “career” employees who now serve as “directorate heads.” Former assistant directors who are rotators will keep their title but serve in more of an advisory role. The current list of directorate heads is available here. Notably, the SBE Directorate is the only one that does not also have a deputy directorate head and/or assistant director.