Hundreds more NSF grants terminated after agency director resigns

Summary

Sethuraman Panchanathan resigned Thursday as director of the US National Science Foundation.Credit: Graeme Sloan/Sipa US/AlamyFresh turmoil has hit the US National Science Foundation (NSF): hundreds more of the agency’s research grants were terminated today on top of the hundreds already terminated last week, Nature has learnt. The new terminations come one day after the agency’s director abruptly resigned and NSF staff members were offered incentives to retire early due to “future restructuring, staffing reductions, and constrained budget environments”.The departing director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, was appointed as head of one of the world’s leading funders of basic research by US President Donald Trump in 2019 during his first term in office. NSF slashes prestigious PhD fellowship awards by halfBut Trump, now in office for a second time, allegedly wants to cut the agency’s US$9-billion budget by 55% and its workforce by 50%, according to Science. In a farewell letter to staff, Panchanathan wrote, “I believe that I have done all I can to advance the mission of the agency”, adding, “while NSF has always been an efficient agency, we still took the challenge of identifying other possible efficiencies”.Nature spoke with seven NSF staff members for this story. All requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak with the press. Staffers said they were stunned by Panchanathan’s sudden departure. “I respect him more for deciding to resign and not signing the agency’s death warrant,” says one NSF staffer. Neal Lane, a former NSF director under Democratic president Bill Clinton, offered praise for Panchanathan, who goes by ‘Panch’. “Panch has done an outstanding job” amid the effort to “diminish NSF’s role in science, education and pretty much everything else”, Lane says. The US National Science Board, which governs the NSF, praised Panchanathan in a statement as “fantastic”. Asked for comment, an NSF spokesperson referred Nature to Panchanathan’s farewell let...