Natl Science Foundation Abolishes All 37 Divisions

Science.com reports:

The National Science Foundation (NSF), already battered by White House directives and staff reductions, is plunging into deeper turmoil. According to sources who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight NSF directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced. The current directors and deputy directors will lose their titles and might be reassigned to other positions at the agency or elsewhere in the federal government.

The consolidation appears to be driven in part by President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut the agency’s $9 billion budget by 55% for the 2026 fiscal year that begins on 1 October. NSF’s decision to abolish its divisions could also be part of a larger restructuring of the agency’s grantmaking process that involves adding a new layer of review. NSF watchers fear that a smaller, restructured agency could be more vulnerable to pressure from the White House to fund research that suits its ideological bent.

Read the full article. Last month the NSF, an allegedly independent agency, caved to Trump and declared that it would not longer seek to attract ” more women and members of underrepresented groups into science, technology, engineering, and math.” In February, the NFS appeared here with it scoured its sites to delete dozens of now-banned terms such as equity, inclusion, diversity, bias, multicultural, and much more.

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti…

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— David Malakoff (@davidmalakoff.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 7:49 PM