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This summer, the National Science Foundation announced three priorities areas for its Graduate Research Fellowship Program in 2021: artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and computationally intensive research. In previous years, the grant has not focused on particular research topics, and thousands of scientists have signed a petition to remove the emphasis on these disciplines, saying that it runs counter to the mission of the program and could edge out students from underrepresented groups, Times Higher Education reports.
“Creating preferred research areas limits efforts to diversify science and will ultimately hamper scientific discovery and student development,” reads the petition, which was posted a couple of weeks ago. It was started by Chelsea Catania, a former recipient of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) and current postdoc at MIT. As of August 7, nearly 3,400 signatories had joined Catania’s petition.
Hundreds of scientists have also signed on to ...
