National Science Foundation Fires 168 Workers as Federal Purge Continues
Wired
FEBRUARY 18, 2025
Firings at the NSF included permanent employees who had already completed their one-year probationary period, as well as at-will workers.
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A New Look At Running Grants & Programs: Why Use A System When You Have Excel?
Interactive Webinar: Recurring Giving Events That Keep on Giving
Trending Sources
Iconic Arecibo Observatory crumples after cable and structural failures
TechSpot
DECEMBER 1, 2020
The NSF determined it would be safer to take down the facility in a controlled demolition. Last month, the National Science Foundation decided there was no safe way to repair Arecibo's support cables, which failed in August and again in November. However, before it could even schedule the decommission, the.
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New Imaging Technique Makes the Sun Look Like a Swirling Pink Liquid
Futurism
MAY 31, 2025
Scientists from the @NSF NSO and @NJIT produced the finest images in the Suns corona to date! "It is super exciting to build an instrument that shows us the Sun like never before," echoed lead author Dirk Schmidt, an adaptive optics scientist at the US National Solar Observatory.
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High-speed internet could be coming to Antarctica
The Verge
NOVEMBER 23, 2021
Earlier this year, the NSF began seriously exploring the possibility of building a fiber optic cable that would travel along the seafloor from Antarctica to neighboring New Zealand or Australia. After that, NSF will decide whether to proceed with the project. That could soon change, however.
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BadVR is using government grants to build a business that’s independent of venture capital
TechCrunch
DECEMBER 31, 2020
It’s the second grant that the company has taken from the NSF and is an example of how startups can turn to government funding for capital and avoid some of the pitfalls of fundraising from venture capital. Magic Leap reportedly slashes 1,000 jobs and steps away from consumer plans.
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New social media transparency bill would force Facebook to open up to researchers
The Verge
DECEMBER 10, 2021
Named the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA), it would establish new rules compelling social media platforms to share data with “qualified researchers,” defined as university-affiliated researchers pursuing projects that have been approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
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Vera Rubin Observatory reveals jaw-dropping first images from world’s largest telescope
Fast Company Tech
JUNE 23, 2025
The images come courtesy of the NSF–DOE Vera C. NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our universe than all optical telescopes throughout history combined,” Brian Stone, chief of staff at the National Science Foundation, said in a press release. Rubin Observatory, a scientific facility funded by the U.S.
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Firefly’s Alpha rocket detonated by Space Force during first launch
The Verge
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021
Stay tuned to the NSF youtube channel for the full video. In a statement, Firefly said it was too early to know what caused the mishap, and that “we will be diligent in our investigation” with the Space Force and the Federal Aviation Administration. “We We are happy to report that there were no injuries associated with the anomaly,” it said.
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Nonprofit Tech Grants 101: Funding the Tools That Keep Your Mission Safe
The Modern Nonprofit
JUNE 17, 2025
National Science Foundation Sept 29, 2025 Apply Here NSF Small Business Innovation Research / Small Business Technology Transfer U.S. National Science Foundation July 2, 2025 Apply Here CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service U.S.
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Minerva Lithium uses absorbent material to change the way we extract lithium
TechCrunch
OCTOBER 19, 2022
Before Minerva was officially founded, Dawood and Rathnayake took part in a National Science Foundation (NSF) program designed to help universities with entrepreneurship programs. By 2021, Minerva had received pre-seed funding from NSF. Like it’s literally gold, and lithium is one of them.
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PreciTaste lands cash for tech that checks restaurant orders for accuracy
TechCrunch
AUGUST 9, 2022
According to NSF International, a product testing and certification organization, more than half of quick-service restaurant (QSR) managers found staff turnover to be an issue for their business, with 20% saying that it had the biggest negative impact on operations within the past several months.
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Regher Solar is ready to meet the new space industry’s demand for cheaper, better solar panels
TechCrunch
OCTOBER 14, 2021
They also snagged a NASA SBIR Phase I award and an NSF Phase II, totaling $1.1 With interest from established aerospace companies and stamps of approval (via SBIR) of both NASA and the NSF, Regher seems well positioned to make its play. Whether the hard part is designing the new panel or actually making it, though?
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Lung-health startup Respira Labs inhales $2.8M to help respiration patients breathe easier
TechCrunch
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
million in grants from Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes for Health (NIH). On top of the investment raised, the company was awarded an additional $1.8
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How Cell Phones and Tablets Enable Telework
Tech Soup
APRIL 25, 2014
As an example, the National Science Foundation (NSF) found that by not commuting, each NSF teleworker reclaims an average of 62 hours of their lives back and saves $1,201 a year. The Mobile Work Exchange has a handy benefits calculator where you can quantify how much telework can help your particular organization.
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Cyberinfrastructure: What is it? What does it mean?
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
DECEMBER 17, 2007
The director of the NSF has gone so far as to say that it will "usher in a technological age that dwarfs everything we have yet experienced in its sheer scope and power." The National Science Foundation is convinced cyberinfrastructure will transform the conduct of the sciences and that other academic disciplines will soon follow.
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Docugami’s new model for understanding documents cuts its teeth on NASA archives
TechCrunch
APRIL 12, 2021
Another SBIR grant with the NSF differs in that, while at NASA the team is looking into better organizing tons of disparate types of documents with some overlapping information, at NSF they’re aiming to better identify “small data.” ” “We are looking at the tiny things, the tiny details,” said Paoli.
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Takeaways From the Year-End Nonprofit Fundraising Survey
NonProfit Hub
NOVEMBER 7, 2018
At the end of the report, the NSF asked charities to predict what their fundraising would look like in 2018. Seventy percent of organizations in the Midwest met their goals compared to 78 percent in the West, but the study states that this gap is not “statistically significant.”. How has 2018 stacked up?
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Hatch, a neobank for SMBs, launches with $20M in funding from investors like Kleiner Perkins, Foundation and Plaid’s founders
TechCrunch
APRIL 13, 2021
The fintech’s Hatch Business Checking accounts cost $10 a month, don’t charge non-sufficient funds (NSF) or overdraft fees and includes cashback offers. Eligible account holders can also enroll in Hatch Cover, which covers overdrafts up to $100, or apply for lines of credit.
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Faith Ringgold: 30 Years of Art-Making and Activism and Video Clip on Women Artists
Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media
OCTOBER 25, 2006
According to Benjamin Stokes, co-founder of Game sfor Change, the NSF has funded several game projects aimed at girls. There's a growing number of artists, like Mary Flanagan who is on the board of Games for Change, interested in games.
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The Truth about Bilingual Interpretation: Guest Post by Steve Yalowitz
Museum 2.0
MARCH 12, 2014
When we received the award, we felt a great sense of opportunity and responsibility, since this was the first NSF-funded research study about bilingual families and their experiences in fully bilingual exhibitions. BERI was a three-year collaborative effort I worked on with Cecilia Garibay, Nan Renner and Carlos Plaza.
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55 In Support of Idiosyncrasy
Museum 2.0
MARCH 15, 2010
Funders like the NSF have encouraged science centers in particular to share their techniques and evaluations, which is fabulous but also leads to rampant and sometimes unthinking imitation. Institutions may feel less of a need to offer something unusual or distinctive if the audience will keep refreshing every few years.
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50 Quickie Links: Surveys, Transcripts, and a Strange Bedfellow
Museum 2.0
MARCH 20, 2008
Ideum, the company that brought you ExhibitFiles (with ASTC), is conducting a survey on museums' needs in support of an NSF grant proposal (Open Exhibits) to build open source templates for simple interactive exhibits (timelines, digital collections, news kiosks). What does that mean in simple terms?
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Game Friday: Tagging For Fun
Museum 2.0
MARCH 30, 2007
These games were developed by Carnegie Mellon with funding from the NSF, with the goal of harnessing collective intelligence (and interest in playing games) to tag all of the images on the internet. The ESP Game , and its related game, Phetch , are two games that create a framework to make tagging fun. Why would they want to do that?
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20 Community Science Workshops and Shared Authorship of Space: Interview with Emilyn Green
Museum 2.0
MARCH 18, 2015
We received two rounds of NSF funding in the 1990s to expand. We received NSF funding for three years and then it cut off. Our programs end up being the hub of the local science learning ecosystem--especially in communities where there isn''t a science center for miles in any direction. How are Workshop locations selected?
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20 Scratch: An Educational, Multi-Generational Online Community that Works
Museum 2.0
OCTOBER 30, 2008
The initial NSF proposal for ScratchR focused on creating networked opportunities for teams of kids who were already using Scratch and for whom a social component would add value to their education experiences.
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Navigating the Shifting Political Landscape as a Federal Grant Recipient
sgEngage
MARCH 17, 2025
Similarly, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has issued a directive that requires all grantees to pause any activities related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) that do not fully comply with the new administration’s updated requirements.
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Cruz Foam’s shell-based Styrofoam alternative brings in $3.4M seed with DiCaprio and Kutcher
TechCrunch
APRIL 20, 2022
” The company kept the lights on for the period after I met them with an SBIR award from the NSF, with the Phase I and II awards yielding more than $2 million in non-dilutive money to work with. We don’t want to introduce materials that are just gonna be another problem.”
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ExhibitFiles: Interviews with Initiators Jim Spadaccini and Wendy Pollock
Museum 2.0
MAY 7, 2007
Wendy: Part of the thinking was that NSF supported the book Are We There Yet? , NSF requires grant applicants to build on prior knowledge--where do you get it? And with NSF's support, some of the very first things we did were around people developing traveling exhibits. NSF seems to be perfectly happy with that.
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Exceptionally rare radio sources detected in a distant galaxy
Mashable Tech
MAY 7, 2025
Credit: Bettymaya Foott / NRAO / AUI / NSF The relics suggest the entire cluster is in the final throes of a merger set in motion a billion years before. Using an enormous telescope in India and the Very Large Array in New Mexico, pictured above, a team of researchers spotted the arcs flanking the cluster like giant parentheses.
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James Webb Spots Disturbing Sight: Entire Planet Sinking Into Star
Futurism
APRIL 20, 2025
"Because this is such a novel event, we didn't quite know what to expect when we decided to point this telescope in its direction," said lead author Ryan Lau, an astronomer at the NSF NOIRLab in Arizona, in a statement about the work.
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NSF director resigns amid 55% budget cut, mass layoffs from Trump admin
Ars Technica
APRIL 24, 2025
Specifically, the NSF is facing a 55 percent cut to its $9 billion annual budget in the next fiscal year, as well as a mass layoff of half of its 1,700-person staff, according to Science. A memo sent to staff on Thursday, April 24, and obtained by Ars Technica confirmed that the NSF is in for significant cuts.
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Mystery Objects From Other Stars Are Visiting Our Solar System. These Missions Will Study Them Up Close
Singularity Hub
APRIL 15, 2025
RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA/Y. The next generation of solar sail spacecraft could use lasers on the sails to reach even higher speeds, which would offer a nimble and low-cost solution compared to other futuristic fuels, such as nuclear propulsion. The Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile should discover more interstellar objects.
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Here’s why AG1’s CEO is envisioning the DTC supplement on store shelves
Fast Company Tech
FEBRUARY 28, 2025
I think about third-party certificationswe’ve been NSF[-certified] for sport for eight or nine years, which is a third-party certification that not only verifies that what’s on the label is in the product, it also ensures there are no contaminants or doping agents.
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In war against DEI in science, researchers see collateral damage
Ars Technica
FEBRUARY 23, 2025
The list of grants was compiled by a group of Senate Republicans last fall and released to the public earlier this month, and while the NSF does not appear to have taken any action in response to the complaints, the lists existence is adding to an atmosphere of confusion and worry among researchers in the early days of President Donald J.
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Editorial: Censoring the scientific enterprise, one grant at a time
Ars Technica
MAY 2, 2025
Over the last two weeks, in response to Executive Order 14035 , the National Science Foundation (NSF) has discontinued funding for research on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as support for researchers from marginalized backgrounds. Read full article Comments
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Rubin Observatorys first images flaunt millions of galaxies. Take a look.
Mashable Tech
JUNE 24, 2025
Credit: RubinObs / NOIRLab / SLAC / NSF / DOE / AURA The observatory, built by the U.S. Credit: RubinObs / NOIRLab / SLAC / NSF / DOE / AURA The Trifid glows with pinks and blues, carved by young stars punching through the haze. Nearby, the Lagoon sprawls in a soft rosy glow, its tangled wisps shaped by stellar winds.
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National Science Foundation funding cuts could threaten the economy, science, and safety
Fast Company Tech
MAY 16, 2025
No matter where you live, NSF-supported research has also made your life safer. Improved hurricane and tornado forecasts reflect NSF investment in environmental monitoring and computer modeling of weather. NSF-supported resilience studies reduce risks and losses from wildfires. National Science Foundation.
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Scientists are holding a ‘science fair’ in the lobby of a congressional building to show what the U.S. stands to lose with cuts
Fast Company Tech
JULY 9, 2025
In the budget request he released in May, billions more would be cut from NIH, NSF, and the Department of Education, and it would completely eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, and more. But even with what’s been canceled or clawed back so far, Trump is looking to reduce spending on science even further.
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We don’t need to defund education
Fast Company Tech
MAY 28, 2025
This is not the time to dismantle and defund NSF and the Department of Education. Lets make the necessary investments because when we succeed at educating every child, we create a prepared workforce, our next generation of leaders, and stronger communities. Lets approach it that way. And this isnt just a call for more federal funding.
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Feds continue effort to defund research at Harvard
Ars Technica
MAY 14, 2025
On Tuesday, the federal government's Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced that it had terminated research grants to Harvard totalling $450 million, spread out across eight federal agencies. The move comes on the heels of $2.2
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Trump’s 2026 budget proposal: Crippling cuts for science across the board
Ars Technica
MAY 2, 2025
On Friday, the US Office of Management and Budget sent Senator Susan Collins, chair of the Senate's Appropriations Committee, an outline of what to expect from the Trump administration's 2026 budget proposal. As expected, the budget includes widespread cuts, affecting nearly every branch of the federal government.
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China aims to recruit top US scientists as Trump tries to kill the CHIPS Act
Ars Technica
MARCH 5, 2025
On Tuesday, Donald Trump finally made it clear to Congress that he wants to kill the CHIPS and Science Acta $280 billion bipartisan law Joe Biden signed in 2022 to bring more semiconductor manufacturing into the US and put the country at the forefront of research and innovation.
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