DOGE Says US National Science Foundation Canceling Over $325 Million in DEI Research

 DOGE Says US National Science Foundation Canceling Over $325 Million in DEI Research

The cancellations are in line with Trump’s directive to end DEI policies in the federal government.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) grants under the Trump administration, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) said in an April 26 post on social media X.

“Great work by @NSF canceling 701 wasteful DEI grants ($203M in savings), including ‘Building Racial Equity in Marine Science.’ This brings the total to over $325M saved in the past 2 weeks.”

NSF terminated a $20,000 “management development” contract for training course materials related to “understanding bias to unleash potential,” said another DOGE post.

The NSF is an independent federal agency supporting science and engineering that issues grants for research purposes. The foundation’s investments account for roughly 25 percent of the federal support received by U.S. colleges and universities for basic research.

The agency said in an April 26 X post that it terminated several awards which “did not align with our priorities,” underlining the agency’s decision to ditch DEI criteria in its grants this month.

The foundation clarified its priorities in an April 18 statement, saying the “principles of merit, competition, equal opportunity, and excellence are the bedrock of the NSF mission” and that it continues to “review all projects using Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts criteria.”

ngineering, and mathematics (STEM) field.

In its statement, which was updated on April 25, NSF said that activities undertaken to fulfill the Broader Impacts criteria should aim to create opportunities for “all Americans everywhere.”

“These efforts should not preference some groups at the expense of others, or directly/indirectly exclude individuals or groups,” it said. Research projects that are “limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities.”

“Awards that are not aligned with NSF’s priorities have been terminated, including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation.”