Now congressional Republicans are digging through scientists’ grant proposals
By Tim McDonnell
When scientists across the country need money for research projects, one place they often turn is the National Science Foundation. The NSF is an independent federal agency with an annual budget of about $7 billion, which it doles out to fund about a quarter of all federally supported science research.
Of course, the agency doesn’t just give money away to anyone who asks. Proposals have to survive a rigorous review process that includes close scrutiny by a panel of top scientists in the relevant field. Competition is fierce: Of the 49,000 proposals submitted in 2013, only a fifth were ultimately funded. So as far as most scientists are concerned, an NSF grant is about the highest mark of scientific legitimacy a research project can get.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) apparently disagrees. Over the last 18 months, Smith, who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, has launched an aggressive campaign against what he sees as misguided money management at NSF that fritters funds away on frivolous research. Research on ridiculous things like, you know, climate change.
Smith’s committee is responsible for setting the NSF’s budget. But in the last year, the congressmember has gone to unprecedented lengths to scrutinize the agency’s scientific operations. His staffers are sifting through the archives of NSF grant proposal materials, which are normally kept strictly confidential to preserve scientific objectivity. They’re looking for projects to highlight as evidence that NSF is wasting money on research that, from their view, aren’t in the “national interest.”
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http://grist.org/climate-energy/now-congressional-republicans-are-digging-through-scientists-grant-proposals/
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