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Eric Boodman

@ericboodman.bsky.social

2.7K followers 227 following 49 posts

Journalist writing narrative features for @statnews.bsky.social and occasional essays elsewhere.

Posts Replies Media

Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Ethical discussions about genome-editing are inextricable from questions about government funding and regulation of science. But some experts' assumptions about the workings of government are now up in the air, @mmolteni.bsky.social writes. www.statnews.com/2025/05/27/g...

Screenshot of this paragraph: "“I’ve always believed we were working, in a slow, mostly linear process, toward more democratization in the world,” she said. “My work on consensus building has largely assumed people engaged in that process would be living in democratic societies, and that’s not a fair assumption anymore.” In March, a Swedish research institute released its annual report finding that for the first time in decades, there are now more people living in autocracies than democracies."

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

NSF employees explained to @dangaristo.bsky.social and @maxkozlov.bsky.social that they've been instructed to search for specific language — such as "women" and "people of color" — in abstracts and titles of grants to flag. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Screenshot of text from Nature article that reads: "Around 10,000 research grants have been flagged for review and distributed to various programme directors. Grants in one area of science are being distributed to directors in a separate area of science. For instance, the geosciences division is examining grants from the division of social, behavioural and economic sciences. The grants are being reviewed independently by two staff members instructed to indicate any potential violations of Trump's orders. They will submit their reviews in a spreadsheet by 5 p.m. today.
Nature has seen the criteria for flagging grants, which call for programme officers to look for
"broadening participation" language, foreign assistance, climate science, domestic energy, and "discriminatory programs, including illegal DEl".
"To see 'women' and 'woman' and 'people of colour' showing up on a spreadsheet over and over and over and over — that was a gut punch," says one NSF employee.
Action for grants can include cancelling, archiving or modifying them, with a deadline of 7 February. A team of five to eight NSF staff members will then review any revised grants, which will on to the Office of the Director for approval."

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

While the NSF website says it can't pause or delay payment for active awards based on actual or potential non-compliance with Executive Orders, it also says the agency is continuing its "ongoing review of our award portfolio to identify active grants in the context of recent Executive Orders."

Screenshot from the NSF website with text that reads: "7. How does the TRO impact the award reviews NSF was conducting?
The TRO does not impact the ongoing review of our award portfolio to identify active grants in the context of recent Executive Orders. We will continue the comprehensive review of our award portfolio."

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

That same webpage says that "NSF can not take action to delay or stop payment for active awards based solely on actual or potential non-compliance with the Executive Orders," though that appears to be what it did this past week.

Screenshot of NSF website displaying text that says, "8. Can NSF terminate my award even if they are still reviewing all awards?
NSF can not take action to delay or stop payment for active awards based solely on actual or potential non-compliance with the Executive Orders. However, the TRO reserves the agency's right to take action for reasons not related to compliance with the executive orders, such as violations of law, regulation, or current NSF grant terms and conditions."

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

But in the FAQ on its webpage about Executive Orders, updated on Sunday, Feb. 2, the NSF says it executed a shut down of its payment system because of "extraordinarily high volume."

Screenshot from NSF website that includes the text: "NSF executed a shut down of ACM$ last week due to extraordinarily high volumes of payments received after OMB Memorandum M-24-13 was released, which resulted in a cancellation of all payment requested received on January 28"

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Eric Boodman @ericboodman.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Here the NSF says that its online payment system is down "while NSF performs a comprehensive review of the award portfolio to ensure compliance with recent Executive Orders."

Screenshot of text that says: "The Award Cash Management Service
(ACM$) is temporarily unavailable beginning Tuesday January 28, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. EST, while NSF performs a comprehensive review of the award portfolio to ensure compliance with recent Executive Orders, pursuant to Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Memorandum M-25-13, issued on January 27, 2025. Therefore, all payments under active awards will be paused as the agency conducts the required reviews and analysis. NSF has created an Executive Order Implementation webpage https://new.nsf.gov/executive-orders to ensure the widest dissemination of information and updates. We will continue to communicate with you as we receiv additional guidance.

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