Scientists Oppose NSF’s New Graduate Fellowship Priority

More than 3,000 researchers have signed on to a petition that expresses concern over the agency’s 2021 application for the funding program, which emphasizes three areas of computational science and might further disadvantage underrepresented groups.

kerry grens
| 2 min read
nsf national science foundation grfp graduate research fellowship program grad student phd science stem artificial intelligence, quantum information science, and computationally intensive research

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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 ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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