The US National Science Foundation (NSF) is planning to expropriate around $500 million that has already been distributed to grant-making divisions, according to a Nature investigation. The money would be withdrawn from three of the NSF's eight main directorates: engineering; computer and information science and engineering; and mathematical and physical science.
The move would force programme officers to pull back proposals that have already passed peer review and been recommended for funding. More than 100 proposals have been affected; many researchers had already been informally notified of their awards, according to agency staff members.
Nature's analysis of internal budget documents found that when the NSF distributed funding to its directorates in mid-April, it withheld nearly $1 billion of the money Congress had appropriated. Combined with the clawbacks, this would result in funding cuts of more than 30% for most directorates compared with their planned 2025 spending. The exception is the technology, innovation and partnerships directorate, which is still set to receive a boost of around 30%.
Several NSF staff members told Nature that at least some of the funds will be funnelled to a project that is a brainchild of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). An NSF spokesperson denied reports that funds were being redirected to the X-Labs initiative but did not specify how withheld funds would be spent.
The cuts pit the White House's science and budget offices against Congress. In a non-binding document that accompanied the 2026 spending bill, Congress directed the NSF to "equitably distribute funding" and avoid cutting any directorate by more than 5%. The White House Office of Management and Budget has singled out the NSF for "wasteful spending" and a "growing failure of objectivity."
Dan Reed, a computer scientist at the University of Utah and former chair of the National Science Board (dissolved by the White House in April), expressed concern about money being redirected from peer-reviewed funding channels.
