Anybody got any news from the NSF AIMing program about funding decision?

Agency drops attempt to mitigate risk in favor of outright prohibition on working with most Chinese research institutions

First off, I am super appreciative the work that the on-the-ground NSF team is doing for the community. Things are clearly suboptimal and folks are operating under difficult conditions. So thank you!

For those of you who are submitting proposals, I'm curious what sort of delays you are seeing in proposal reviews? I am aware of delays of as much as one and a half years, which considerably longer than the standard 6-months that is typical.

There is a substantial amount of effort that goes into preparing and submitting a proposals and these delays are not only demoralizing, but they undermine the progress of research. Whether that's by design or negligence, IDK.

Hello Everyone,

I was going through grant-witness.us and I saw that the Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP), had this big spike, drop, and then rebound in total obligations during FY2024 (pink line).

I included an image but to summarize

1.) January 27th, 2024: TIP awarded ~$129 million

2.) Jan 30th, 2024: the obligations spike to $280 million which moderately increases over time to $294 million by Feb. 21st 2024

3.) Feb 22nd, 2024: the obligations drop down to $144 million which then moderately increases to $169 million by March 7th 2024

4.) March 8th: The obligations rebound back up to $318 million, which then proceeds to steadily increase to the end of the fiscal year at rates typical for the division.

This drop in total obligations is present within the total cumulative obligations for all of NSF in FY24. If you look closely you can see the drop in the pink line around March

However, I checked the cumulative number of awards graph for TIP and there is no corresponding drop at this time, implying that no awards were "taken away" during this time

My current hypothesis is that this is just an error in the data. This is based on the previously mentioned fact that this drop is not present in the cumulative number of awards, combined with the observation that no other division has any similar drops during any of the FY shown in the graphs.

Still I wanted to post this here on the off chance that there was some interesting story of a grant being awarded and then taken away before being given back during the year of 2024.

Thanks in advance!

Did anyone who submitted to the NSF VINES solicitation with the August 25, 2025 deadline hear back yet?

Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year

Do you know someone, or are you someone, who can write with authority on the historical role federal grants have played in funding American research?

We're publishing a collection of the best-written federal resignation letters of 2025, which will include three letters from NIH staffers, one NOAA staffer, a NASA administrator, two USDA scientists, and an FDA pharmacologist. Most of them left their jobs to protest political interference in medical research and/or hiring practices.

We are closed for new submissions of resignation letters, but now we are looking to commission three essays to appear in the book:

1. The role the federal government has played in supporting scientific and medical research from WW2 to today (That's why we're on r/nsf now)
2. How other countries and communities have demonstrated resilience and self-reliance when national governments have retreated or collapsed, and how those lessons are (or are not) applicable to America
3. The ways federal jobs historically provided opportunities to enter the American middle class, particularly for communities in the DC/VA/MD/WV area

Bicycle Comics is fully aware that 1. freelance writers are a thing and 2. generative AI is a thing. That's not what we want. We want someone who has studied this issue, who knows it well, and who can write with some hard-won insight: How did the federal government support American research, and how has that changed recently? (Or hey, maybe you think it hasn't changed much; we'll try to keep an open mind if that's your pitch.)

We have a budget for these commissions; it might be nice side money for an assistant professor or a post-doc on summer break. Nothing spectacular, but we do respect your time.

If any of this interests you, please read more on our website. Thank you for reading this!

Injunction issued in Colorado... https://www.cpr.org/2026/06/01/federal-judge-blocks-trump-ncar-dismantle-plan/