iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Wait. I thought we included you because you agreed that white bark pine is basically a bird???

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Leslie Rissler @ljrissler.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

NSF plans to reinstate all probationary employees who were fired on 18 Feb! NSF’s decision. 👏🏻👏🏻❤️

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Dr. Holly P Jones @dochpjones.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

My perspective on the travesty of firing ~10% of NSF employees last week aired on my local @npr.org station but you all can read it and listen here. www.northernpublicradio.org/wnij-news/20... 🧪. I highlighted some of the kudos for the terminated POs that @mdcarling.bsky.social spearheaded.

northernpublicradio.org

Perspective: What's science worth to you?

Holly Jones says cuts at the National Science Foundation will hurt us all.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

If you'd like the links to any of these boards to contribute your own message, please DM me (I'm hesitant to post them publicly). I hope we can provide our friends and colleagues an outpouring of support in these insane times. Finally, please help me spread the word far and wide. Thank you. 3/3

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

As a small token of gratitude, Kudoboards have been setup to allow the PI community to give thanks to these tireless public servants, who dedicated their careers not to the pursuit of their own research goals, but to helping us achieve ours. 2/3

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 21/02/2025

As many of you know, ~170 Program Officers at #NSF were fired on Tuesday, including a number that worked in Divisions important to the EEB community (e.g., DEB and GEO/OPP). 1/3

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Dr. Jennifer Wade @volcanojw.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

Do you want a big overview of NSF, explaining things like the fact that 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research comes from NSF? And that 94% of its budget goes out the door in grants/awards? Here you go. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/Factsh...

An “NSF BY THE NUMBERS” fact sheet screenshot with some facts about “ADVANCING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING RESEARCH IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD”

-The U.S. National Science Foundation was created by Congress in_ 1950 to continue the U.S. science and technology enterprise began during World War II.
-NSF allocates 94% of its approximately $8.5 billion budget for grants and awards to support research projects, facilities and STEM education.
-NSF funds research in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
-NSF fosters international scientific collaboration on all 7 continents around the globe.
-About 2,000 academic and other private and public institutions across the U.S. conduct NSF-funded research.
-NSF supports 24% of all federally funded academic fundamental research at U.S. colleges and universities.
fundamental research comes from NSF.
- In 2020, NSF received approximately 43,000 research proposals from scientists and engineers and funded about 12,000.
- NSF-funded researchers have received 248 Nobel Prizes.

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Katie Wagner @cewagnerlab.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Do you know what tomorrow is? It's send a federal worker a valentine day! Our federal employees need a lift, a laugh, and some love. Send over your best federal-agency themed Valentines puns and with @500womensci.bsky.social we’ll launch some templates tonight!

Heart Shaped image with the words, "Send a Federal Employee a Valentine! Let’s send our federal workers a lift, a laugh and some love. You’ve got broader impacts on our hearts!
You’re air-replaceable! Thanks for protecting our planet!
Our love for you is highly significant (p < 0.0001)!
You rock our world! (And tectonic plates.)
You’re TREE-mendous! Thanks
for protecting our parks and
our hearts!"

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Jonathan Lambert @jonlambert.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Is your NSF grant on this list? Reach out if so! Ted Cruz released a list of grants flagged for DEI or "neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda" from his Oct. report. NSF is using keywords from that report for their review, though Cruz's list is likely larger. www.commerce.senate.gov/2025/2/cruz-...

commerce.senate.gov

Cruz-Led Investigation Uncovers $2 Billion in Woke DEI Grants at NSF, Releases Full Database

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

What’s more, the Office of Personnel Management can declare an individual who participates in a strike unsuitable for federal employment. Forever.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Driving the point home, 18 U.S.C. §1918 makes it a felony to strike against the United States or belong to a union that asserts the right to strike against the United States.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

5 U.S.C. §7311, specifies that federal employees may not participate in a strike, assert the right to strike, or even belong to a union that “asserts the right to strike against the government of the United States.”

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

All they can do is silently toil while doing the best they can. Likely while trying to suppress and anger, rage, and frustration they might feel at being cutoff from what they love to do - serve the PI community.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

But, to me, it seems a nearly impossible situation. NSF employees cannot lobby congress. NSF employees cannot go on strike.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

The Implementation of Recent Executive Orders page seemingly hasn’t been updated since it was posted despite the promise that it “is being updated often,” and that questions will be compiled and posted as FAQs.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I’m not trying to suggest that NSF is handling things smoothly or appropriately. Certainly communication could be much better.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Seem possible they could be fired, wholesale, every single one. The entire organization above the level of Program Officer could be gone and not rehired (there’s a federal hiring freeze, I believe). Then what? What’s NSF at that point? Maybe this is crazy talk, but is it?

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Also, if I remember correctly, all members of the Senior Executive Service at NSF can basically be fired at any time. Think DDDs, DDs, DADs, ADs. They certainly don’t have union protection. So what happens if they ignore EOs because they want to uphold the COMPETES Act, or other relevant laws?

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I am not an attorney, but it seems NSF employees are stuck, which was acknowledged in yesterday’s Science piece. Yes, the COMPETES Act codified many aspects of NSF’s Broaden Participation efforts. But doesn’t violating an EO potentially come with either civil or criminal penalties?

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I would imagine that many NSF employees feel the same way, but are prevented from communicating that with the research community and general public. PIs are NSF’s lifeblood and being cutoff from communicating with them must be agonizing for Program Officers.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Obviously, it’s heartbreaking and perhaps criminal that many researchers are in limbo, and some, like PRFB fellows, aren’t getting paid.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Some additional #NSF thoughts. As always, these thoughts are mine alone. But here goes, It seems the damage this situation has already caused to the research enterprise in the US may be catastrophic (and irreparable?).

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

As others have said, it depends. "Standard" grants mean you (or really your university) got all the money at once. "Continuing" grants get money in increments, typically annual. Anyone should be able to tell by logging into research.gov and checking. Or, your grants office should know, too.

research.gov

Research.gov - Homepage

Research.gov is a partnership of Federal, research-oriented grant making agencies with a shared vision of increasing customer service for applicants while streamlining and standardizing processes amon...

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

We've just been told that the panel meeting is off for tomorrow as well and I'm hearing all panels are canceled this week 😡

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

And if you know a PO, buy them a drink next time you see them. Or maybe not, it's possible that would be construed as an attempt to bribe them.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

While I don't have anything pending, if I did, I'd try really hard to be patient, knowing that all POs, DDD, DDs, DADs, ADs, (NSF loves acronyms), admin folks, etc., must be working extremely hard to figure out how they can best serve all of us.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

They want to do everything they can to help you. But right now, I'd guess (back to wild speculation), they're working furiously to figure out the new landscape we all find ourselves in.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

POs want to help PIs, all of them. They really want to recommend your grant for funding. But, they also want to help you improve your next submission. They want to help provide additional context for reviews and panel summaries. They want to explain new funding opportunities to you.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Every single one of them is/was (some were rotators like me) a thoroughly dedicated public servant. The competition to be a PO is stiff (but wait, they let me do it, so maybe not?) and NSF has the luxury of hiring folks that are extremely committed to the mission.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

1 more #NSF post. While there's a lot I don't know about what's going on right now (see @evolutionpirate.bsky.social recent post for better information), here's what I do know. During my time at NSF I worked with dozens of POs. Mostly in BIO, but lots in GEO and across the entire foundation, too.

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Reposted by Matt Carling

Chris Balakrishnan @evolutionpirate.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Hi All - As some have alluded to, there are a mix of things going on here. Some programs were archived before the transition, some are just pending updates to the solicitation, but everything is being looked at for compliance. I would not assume everything is cancelled though.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

To wrap up, these thoughts are based on my past experience(s). I have no idea if I'm correct about any of it! I don't work for NSF anymore and I don't have any inside knowledge.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Do I know some or all of these are PRFB panels? No, but I'd be that at least some of them are. Do I know how the archiving of the PRFB solicitation impacts any on-going or upcoming PRFB panels? Nope. Absolutely no idea.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Well, DBI, which runs PRFBs, has lots panels scheduled for Jan & Feb with POs that are part of the PRFB program, for example: 21-22 Jan: M. Pilgrim 23-24 Jan: A. Simcox (that's right now!) 27-28 Jan: J. Abraham 30-31 Jan: D. Erdner 3-4 Feb: J. Abraham new.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

new.nsf.gov

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB)

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

An astute observer can sometimes figure out, based on the provided info, which panel is which. For example, IOS is holding a panel 24-26 Feb and all of the listed contacts are POs in the IEP program. Does that guarantee it's an IEP panel? No, but it's a good bet. What does that mean for PRFBs?

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

What about PRFBs submitted in the fall, you ask? Well, I don't know if they've been reviewed. However, it seems likely that they're being reviewed right now or very soon. If you don't know, NSF is required to post a list of upcoming panels: new.nsf.gov/events/propo...

new.nsf.gov

Proposal Review Panels

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

However, it seems no awards have been made for proposals submitted in July, given the start dates for everything in the award database. I'd guess the lack of awards was initially due to uncertainty over funding. But now? I don't know what will happen.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

For example, BIO-LEAPS: all the awards listed on the 'Browse Projects Funded' page have a start date no later than 1 Apr 2024 www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/... That's well before the most recent deadline, which was 1 July 2024. I'd guess proposals submitted to the July 2024 deadline have been reviewed.

nsf.gov

NSF Award Search: Advanced Search Results. Lock

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

For programs in which grants have already been reviewed, it could be that POs were being v. cautious with making final funding decision because they didn't know how much money they would have.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Absolutely no PO would ever want to be in a situation where they called a PI to tell them NSF was going to fund their grant only to find out later NSF didn't have the money.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

BRC-BIO - could also be back, albeit with different language. I don't know. Just a guess. Also, because the federal government has been on a series of continuing resolutions (including the one that runs through mid March), programs often are conservative when it comes to making funding decisions.

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

I don't work for NSF anymore, so take this with a huge grain of salt. It's just my wild speculation. But perhaps it's useful to someone. I'd bet that some of these solicitations will return. PRFBs - my guess is they'll be back, but w/o a track for Broadening Participation. bsky.app/profile/mdca...

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Matt Carling @mdcarling.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

It's my recollection (I don't have first hand knowledge, I don't work for NSF anymore) is that the RAMP shut down occurred a while ago and therefore, was unrelated to any recent executive orders.

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