Although Northwestern struck a deal with the Trump administration to restore federal research funding, National Science Foundation grants terminated in accordance with executive orders remain unchanged.
Through unapproved grant appeals, staffing shortages and lack of funding, many research projects still stand at a halt.
NSF research grants were axed in the spring with an executive order requiring grants to align with federal administration priorities.
An April 18 statement from the director of the NSF stated that “research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities.”
After changes in NSF priorities were implemented, research related to diversity, equity and inclusion became subject to grant funding cuts.
One such research project was headed by physics and astronomy Prof. Bennett Goldberg, who was the primary investigator on two research projects that had NSF grants cancelled.
One, “Inclusive Learning and Teaching in Undergraduate STEM Instruction,” focused on creating an online course that trained faculty instructors in inclusive instruction for STEM classrooms. Originally awarded in 2018, the $1,378,170 grant was terminated on May 9 with over $700,000 left unpaid.
Goldberg’s other project, “Inclusive Graduate Programs: An AGEP Pilot in Physics”, worked to make graduate programs more equitable for physics graduate students in collaboration with 12 other universities. Its $670,152 grant was also terminated, with just under $200,000 unpaid.
“I don’t think any of the projects that I worked on were discriminatory in any way or highlighted any particular protected class, and so I think my projects were terminated inaccurately and inappropriately in terms of what I personally believe about the federal government’s targeting of ‘DEI activities,’” Goldberg said.
After the terminations, Goldberg said the University allowed him to prepare an appeal for their review, adding that he had to prove that his programs were not discriminatory of any protected class.
He said each of the appeal submissions was five to seven pages long and submitted to the Weinberg dean’s office, where the appeals were rejected for submission.
“The University considered several factors as part of deciding whether to appeal terminations of federal grants, including the likelihood of success of appeals and the position of the relevant federal funding agency regarding appeals,” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Daily. “The National Science Foundation stated on their Updates on NSF Priorities website that appeals for terminated awards will not be reviewed or considered.”
Goldberg said he believes the rejection was based on a low probability of success and the cost of hiring lawyers to submit the appeal.
Northwestern’s Scholars website also no longer lists the program, although neither the project nor NU researchers’ participation in it has ceased to exist.
“I believe that you lose so much in your community by deciding not to fight it. You lose emotional commitment to the work. You lose a sense of purpose and a sense of working towards a collective goal,” Goldberg said. “I don’t believe that it’s really a zero-sum game at the highest levels of the institution, and so I don’t agree with the administration’s decision overall.”
He explained that because the grant is awarded to the University and not to Goldberg himself, he cannot take any legal action to restore the terminated grants.
Goldberg has been able to continue some of the research on his discretionary funding and used his existing funds at the time of the termination to ensure that his postdoctoral scholars and graduate students were able to complete their positions and degree requirements. He said they are now in the process of applying for privately funded grants.
Former physics and astronomy postdoctoral scholar Diane Codding, who is involved in Bennett’s research, said at the time of termination, they were wrapping up their pilot study, which was funded with a $500,000 grant from NSF for two years and had applied for a grant increase to continue the research.
When everything was cut, Codding said the increased grant application was sent back to them without review, and she was left with concerns about her position, paycheck and future job prospects.
“It left me feeling like I hadn’t really achieved these accomplishments that truly I should have left with,” Codding said. “At the beginning of 2025, we were launching this multi-year nationwide project with hopes to truly impact the culture of physics graduate programs, and suddenly it just felt like we were cut off at the knees and didn’t see where the future was going to take us.”
Codding, now a co-primary investigator on the research being resubmitted for private funding, said they are continuing to analyze the data they collected before the grant termination, publishing based on the pilot study data and have resubmitted a grant proposal to a smaller private organization for the largest grant the organization can provide.
She said because the new proposal is smaller, even if they receive the grant, they will be working with a fraction of the resources they originally planned.
“We’ve had to make cuts, and as an educator, it’s very frustrating because we designed our work to really support graduate students and to create real impact on their educational outcomes, and it feels like we’re doing a fraction of that now,” Codding said.
Similarly, earth, environmental and planetary sciences Prof. Suzan van der Lee’s work was brought to a halt when her project, fully funded by NSF, “Geoscience workforce development through training inclusive geoscience leaders for a diverse talent pool,” faced termination.
The project, van der Lee explained, involved training graduate students to serve as mentors by having them guide high school seniors through earth and environmental science projects. It also aimed to help high school students learn about the field early, encouraging them to pursue STEM in college.
“We wanted to diversify the pool of undergraduate students that intentionally choose to study earth or environmental science by exposing people with different perspectives and backgrounds to earth and environmental science before they go to college,” van der Lee said. “So I feel, but this was never said, that the broadening participation aspect of this was the reason that the grant got terminated.”
She said the official reason given for the termination of her team was that the project no longer aligned with NSF priorities.
She said at the time of termination, the NSF grant had been funding the continuation of the project for a year. While other potential funding sources are available, van der Lee said she is not able to ask for help to continue the project.
“Our department lost five faculty members, and that is a major portion of our department, about a third of all the faculty in my department. With the hiring freeze, it is not likely that they’ll be filled anytime soon,” van der Lee said. “So the remaining faculty are very overstretched and overtaxed, and there’s nobody who has the bandwidth to run this program, manage the program, lead the program, even if we did get funding back.”
Van der Lee said she believes the long-term impact of the program’s termination will affect the ability of geoscientists to mentor others and affect their knowledge of how earth science works in relation to community needs.
Codding also emphasized the long-term effects of research and project cancellation, arguing that the decision to cut funding shows a lack of understanding of what DEI-focused research does.
“When we’re cutting postdocs and faculty positions because there’s no grants, and when we don’t admit graduate students to our programs because there’s no money for them, we are really cutting off the future of science and advancement in this country at its roots,” said Codding. “And I think it’s going to be years before we see the true impact of that, and I worry that we’re losing a generation of scientists.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated van der Lee’s department. The Daily regrets the error.
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