iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Andrew Gerard

Will Poff-Webster @willpoffwebster.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Ambitious permitting bill out today! @heinrich.senate.gov says: "We need to be able to build big things in this country again... to figure out how to get to yes, or how to get to no, a whole lot faster. If we don't, we will see 20-30% increases in the cost of electricity in the near term."

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

School’s back in session and the @ifp.bsky.social metascience team has a back-to-school reading list for you. If everyone reads these articles, gets their homework done, and stays out of trouble, we'll have a pizza party!* www.macroscience.org/p/what-weve-... *we are not having a pizza party

macroscience.org

What We’ve Been Reading, Vol. 2

Your back to school reading list from the IFP metascience team.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Fwiw, based on this feedback I added a footnote in the editor’s note about the reduction in new awards. Hopefully not tiresome, but acknowledges the cause of fewer awards.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

So you could say cuts to new awards even while budgets (largely) get spent.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Right. The budgets were spent for the previous FY, but this one is up in the air. And as you know, they’re front loading awards so the number of new awards has dropped (at NIH the success rate for R01s went from ~20% before to ~13% in 2025)

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Fair, that’s fair. An initial thought (not strongly held). I see this as somewhat evergreen. Would have been a good idea 3 years ago, would be a good idea in 3 years. So I didn’t see a big need for referencing recent Trump cuts (which we have covered before).

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Yeah - but I didn’t see the reference to Congress as all that important nor did I see the lack of a reference to the Admin as all that important (tbh I don’t see any risk that philanthropy will fund so much research that Congress will reduce approps).

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

You’ll have to ask the authors about that one

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

But earlier in the piece it said “let alone with budgets under attack as they currently are.” Given that Congress has been basically flatlining science budgets, wouldn’t the most obvious reading be that budgets are under attack by the Admin (such as in the PBR)?

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Oh it’s the “further.” You can read that as “cut funding beyond what Congress has cut” or “cut funding beyond what it’s been cut by any actor”. I read it the second way. There have been small cuts to funding from Congress and big cuts from the Admin.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Appreciate you sharing and analyzing this. Maybe I’m naive about security, but I don’t see how this is meaningfully different from a scientist applying for a grant at the NIH, being turned down, and then modifying their grant proposal for Gates.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

How is it privileged information if you ask the applicant if they want to share it? You’re just saving them the step of having to apply different places

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Wait, where does it say Congress is cutting funding?

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Why should federal science agencies launch metascience units? In this article, Jenn Gustetic, Matt Esche, and I describe the problems we think metascience units are well poised to tackle - and how they go about addressing them: www.macroscience.org/p/science-ag...

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

As you well know, I’m from USAID, and am not naive about these things. (Insert James Franco “first time?” meme here) It’s good to be skeptical (of the government and of shoddy reporting). There’s just no evidence that X-Labs or TIP has anything to do with this.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Right - I’m definitely opposed to more NSF cuts. It’s reasonable to have questions / concerns about any new mechanism, but I find it troubling how quickly people are jumping to blaming X-Labs with no evidence. Plenty of real things to be mad without also being mad about fake things.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

We discussed this but putting here for the sake of sparking convos. The numbers in the piece looked off at first read, and chats with folks at NSF confirm that they’re very inaccurate. In addition, there’s no evidence that X-Labs is taking money from other directorates.

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Reposted by Andrew Gerard

Caleb Watney @calebwatney.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

We've been checking with contacts inside the NSF and they are saying it is **not true** that X-labs is responsible for this. X-labs is not anywhere close to big enough to make up this hole. As far as I have heard, this program is coming out of TIP funding.

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Reposted by Andrew Gerard

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

"Different science reformers have distinct core hypotheses about what has gone wrong and what is most tractable to fix." By @calebwatney.bsky.social and Jenn Gustetic

open.substack.com

The Six Camps of Metascience

A field guide for policymakers (and everyone who cares about American science).

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

In case it’s of interest: I wrote about how bad grant terminations are here: www.macroscience.org/p/how-bad-is... And about slow spending here: www.macroscience.org/p/americans-...

macroscience.org

Americans Want More Science Funding

So why aren’t agencies spending the money they have?

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

I’m also concerned about terminations & slow spending. And SBE is super important; eliminating NSF social science funding would be a disaster. I haven’t seen evidence, though, that X-Labs is taking SBE’s money or that a large proportion of NSF funding would move away from universities.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

It’s not limited to nonprofits - wish it was. But the nonprof research org/FRO is basically what X-Labs is modeled after. I don’t begrudge anyone questioning motives of politicals. But I really think this is a good design for an NSF program. And I'm hopeful we see topics beyond Quantum/Instruments.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

1. It’s 1%, not 10% 2. We’re talking about diversifying a portfolio where ~70% of funding at NSF/NIH goes to small, project-based grants. Nonprofit labs like the Arc Institute haven’t undermined higher ed and I’m glad NSF wants to fund labs like that, while maintaining the bulk of funding at unis.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

In 2025, the National Academies produced a report with 53 ideas for simplifying federal science regulations. I picked out a few favorites for Macroscience (and explained why many reforms would require hiring more staff) www.macroscience.org/p/five-presc...

macroscience.org

Five Prescriptions for Simplifying Science Policy

Some thoughts on a National Academies’ report on reforming federal science.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Macroscience mostly focuses on metascience, so it was fun when @dan-turner-evans.bsky.social did some science science. Learn about brains here: www.macroscience.org/p/how-close-...

macroscience.org

How Close Are We to Connecting Our Brains to the Matrix?

Some thoughts on biological intelligence

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

Glider chair. Great for rocking/feeding/getting babies to sleep.

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

How much do Americans want to spend on R&D? New data suggests that when Americans know what the government spends on R&D, 80% want more spending; the median respondent wants to double it. www.macroscience.org/p/americans-...

macroscience.org

Americans Want More Science Funding

So why aren’t agencies spending the money they have?

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Reposted by Andrew Gerard

Alexander Berger @albrgr.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Excited that @mattsclancy.bsky.social‬ will be permanently leading Open Phil's Abundance and Growth Fund. Matt has been leading the program on an interim basis since we announced it in February, and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes going forward. bsky.app/profile/alb...

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Andrew Gerard @andrewgerard.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

My sense is that Feds usually aren’t *allowed* to go on record by agency policies. Plenty of Feds are talking to reporters on background, but Feds not going on record isn’t new. They also didn’t during Gaza, not necessarily for fear of retaliation but to avoid disciplinary action.

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