The US government’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is reportedly axing more than three dozen divisions, including its equity-in-STEM unit, while prepping staff layoffs and yanking over a billion dollars in recently awarded grants. The purge has already sparked legal action and congressional scrutiny.
On Thursday, the journal Science reported that NSF staff have been told that 37 divisions across the federal agency’s all eight directorates will be eliminated, accompanied by a number of layoffs among its 1,700 employees.
For those unfamiliar with the NSF’s role, the org does not conduct its own research but serves as a federal funding body, allocating public money to support universities, institutions, and small businesses in advancing scientific progress, education, and innovation across the United States.
Current directors and deputies of the impacted divisions could lose their titles, with some possibly shuffled elsewhere in the agency or punted into other federal gigs. NSF fields over 40,000 grant proposals a year, funding about a quarter. Until now, division directors had the final word on most awards, according to Science.
Cheatham house rules
The Register has seen a staff memorandum from the foundation’s chief management officer Micah Cheatham that outlines the restructuring.
It calls for a reduction in force of the senior executive service that will reduce the number of occupied and vacant positions from 143 to 59, a loss of 84 roles.
The NSF’s temporary workforce is set to be reduced to 70 employees, from 368 currently. Those 70 temporary positions are supposed to support Presidential priorities in AI, biotech, nuclear energy, quantum science, and translational science.
All remote federal workers not already working full-time, in-person in a federal building will be required to do so by June 16, 2025, with limited exceptions. The Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EES), which is within the Directorate for STEM Education, will be “sunset,” with layoffs to be completed by July 12, 2025.
Additionally, the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 issued a statement calling for Cheatham to resign, alleging the actions outlined in the memo are illegal.
Eliminated
In response to a request to confirm the report, an NSF spokesperson pointed to an update to the foundation’s statement of priorities that explains the organization’s elimination of EES.
“At the US National Science Foundation, our mission is to foster scientific progress, improve national health and prosperity, and safeguard our nation’s security,” the statement reads. “This means making decisions to ensure our efforts align with our priorities. Today, we initiated the reduction in force of the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM. NSF is mindful of its statutory program obligations and plans to take steps to ensure those continue.”
The NSF reorganization follows from a restatement of priorities last month to comply with the Trump administration’s anti-DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) orders. The agency cut about 10 percent of its staff in February, with a judge undoing that move days later.
News of the latest cuts spread quickly on social media, with NSF staff venting frustration and disbelief.
People are in tears, watching years of their efforts and impact, often directed at those who need federal funding the most, being disintegrated
Tomasz Durakiewicz, program director for condensed matter physics, in the Division of Materials Research at the foundation, said in a post that NSF leadership on Friday “announced the destruction of [the Directorate for STEM Education], especially the EES Division.”
“EES is being decimated, people fired, the division dissolved, programs and awards canceled,” he said. “What is happening now to their mission and to all our colleagues there is shameful and deplorable. People are in tears, watching years of their efforts and impact, often directed at those who need federal funding the most, being disintegrated.”
Durakiewicz said details of the NSF restructuring have not been fully disclosed, adding that the purported changes appear to depart from the NSF’s tradition of partnering with academic institutions.
“It sends a strong signal that future NSF will turn away from serving the research and education communities, and focus on serving the political agenda, facing the current administration rather than academia,” he said, going on to decry the failure of the National Science Board and Congress to voice opposition to the NSF cuts.
About a week ago, National Science Board member Marvi Matos Rodríguez, director of systems engineering, integration and test at Boeing, did speak up. In a post, she urged Congress to remember that investment in the NSF is “a down payment on American leadership, prosperity, and security.”
“In a global innovation race where talent and technology define strength, investing in the NSF is not optional, it’s strategic,” she wrote. “It’s how we ensure the United States of America stays ahead, grows our economy, and secures our future.”
A few in Congress have also challenged the broad NSF cuts. In a May 8 letter [PDF], a dozen Democratic representatives on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology asked Brian Stone, Acting Director of the NSF, to explain the agency’s cancellation of grants to research institutions.
The cancellation of these awards suggests instead that NSF is willing to apply political censorship of awards under direction from President Trump and the DOGE teenagers
Some NSF grants related to diversity were cut in April. As of May 2, according to the letter, NSF had terminated nearly 1,400 awarded grants worth over $1 billion. The science-funding body also capped indirect cost reimbursements to research institutions at 15 percent and paused all grants.
“The cancellation of these awards suggests instead that NSF is willing to apply political censorship of awards under direction from President Trump and the DOGE teenagers, which is a clear violation of the statutory mission of the agency,” the letter says.
Academic institutions, already smarting from lost NSF funding, are also fighting back. On Monday, the Association of American Universities, the American Council on Education, and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, in conjunction with 13 research institutions, sued the science foundation in a Massachusetts federal court.
The plaintiffs are challenging a reimbursement cap, arguing it was issued without public notice or comment and violates the law.
“These reimbursements support the infrastructure that makes scientific research possible,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement. “This short-sighted move will hurt the American people, weaken our innovation ecosystem, and make it harder for the United States to compete globally.” ®
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