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The National Science Foundation won’t award grants to universities that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion … in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws”—or that academically boycott Israel or boycott companies doing business with Israel.
The NSF implemented these restrictions Monday for any new grants or any funding amendments to current grants. They appear in a new Grant General Conditions document, which has a paragraph specifying which Israel-related boycotts are prohibited but doesn’t define what DEI is.
In an email, an NSF spokesperson said the changes were to implement the Trump administration’s “goals for federal agencies for administering financial assistance.” The spokesperson declined to answer further questions.
Jennifer Jones, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the changes “just another attempt by Trump to control Americans and to control science. And the best science we can produce happens when it’s independent of political interference.”
“It’s really worrisome because university research that’s dependent on NSF monies produces lifesaving medical advances for all of us, produces the science that gives us clean air, clean water,” Jones said. “National Science Foundation grants help create the next generation of scientists.”
She said the Trump administration stipulating its “political desires in who gets funding and who doesn’t puts all of that at risk.”
The National Institutes of Health implemented similar grant restrictions last month. The moves are part of the federal government’s escalation from cutting current funding for research it deems DEI-related and for universities over alleged campus antisemitism, to now disallowing future awards if institutions don’t comply.
