The National Science Foundation fired 168 employees on Tuesday. According to an NSF spokesperson, the firings are to ensure compliance with President Trump's executive order aimed at reducing the federal workforce in the name of efficiency.
Prior to the firings, about 1,700 staff worked at NSF, managing their $9 billion federal budget that funds research on everything from astrophysics to civil engineering. Staff were called to an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. ET, held on Zoom and in person, where they were told by Micah Cheatham, NSF's chief management officer, that they'd be terminated by the end of the day, without severance. According to sources who were present, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, who ordered the firings, did not attend the meeting.
"Firing talented people, including scientists, who have already invested a year or two with the agency is a waste of resources," says Neal Lane, who served as director of the NSF from 1993 to 1998. "The U.S. needs more scientists, engineers and other technical talent. These firings will cause many of them to leave the field."
NPR spoke with over half a dozen NSF employees — some who still remain at the agency, and some who were terminated. NPR has granted them anonymity as they all say they fear retaliation for speaking publicly, either losing their current jobs if they're employed or for those let go, fearing their remaining colleagues may be targeted. Many of those fired were program officers, who manage research programs by evaluating grants, pulling together research panels, and making decisions about which grants to fund.
"All that work isn't going to get done," said one fired consultant who worked on expanding the STEM workforce. "We have a need for people trained in these emerging technologies of AI and semiconductors. This is just going to totally devastate our ability to do that, and we will continue to have to rely on foreign workers who are getting that training and coming into this country, which is exactly what I thought the government didn't want to do."
The firings targeted probationary employees, who have fewer job protections than permanent employees, but still must be fired for cause. Some probationary staff are new to the agency, while others recently promoted or transferred positions. Additionally, all "intermittent experts" — temporary employees hired at-will often for specific subject matter expertise — were terminated.
In termination notices, probationary employees were told: "The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest." But several of the fired employees who spoke to NPR say they had exemplary records, including awards from the director. "I'll be curious to see how the courts handle the blatant lie about performance," said one terminated program director.
Several fired NSF employees who spoke to NPR were permanent hires, but reclassified as probationary despite having completed their yearlong probationary period. They said that the reclassification happened in January, without explanation, at the direction of the White House Office of Personnel Management.
"Everyone is trying to be the very best stewards of tax dollars we can be"
One fired program officer in the geosciences resigned from a tenured faculty job after getting official notice that they'd been hired permanently by NSF. "My official paperwork in the system reflects that I'm permanent, I've not been issued any new documents, not had any formal communication from NSF telling me otherwise," the officer said.
That officer left the job security of a tenured position "to give back to my country and the scientific community … certainly not [for] the pay or the workload," they said. "These are some of the hardest working people I've ever met, and everyone is trying to be the very best stewards of tax dollars we can be."
One fired employee NPR spoke to worked on ensuring that existing grants were actually doing what the researchers set out to do. "Without people like me, there's nobody to oversee that external evaluation or accountability."
With fewer staff, grant reviews and awards will slow down or stall out, employees told NPR. Ultimately, that will delay new discoveries that could improve people's lives or scientists' understanding of the natural world.
"These arbitrary firings and failure of leadership directly impact the agency's ability to evaluate and fund good science," says Mary Feeney, a public policy researcher at Arizona State University. "[It] is demoralizing for those who remain at the NSF, and will negatively affect the government's ability to attract talent to public service in the future."
The firings come amid a period of tumult at the research agency under the new administration. In late January, NSF paused all grant review for several weeks and temporarily froze funds for existing grants, while they worked to evaluate how their grants complied with Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Staff have also been told that billions could be cut from the budget, and more firings could be coming over the next couple of months. "It's not good," says one NSF employee. "I don't know what NSF is going to be now, but it's not more efficient. It's just a mess."
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