The National Science Foundation has canceled 17 grants worth $7.3 million to Pennsylvania institutions of higher education, with the University of Pittsburgh accounting for five - or about one-third - of the terminated grants.
One grant was cut just a week after the NSF approved a one-year extension; two other grants focused on ways to improve math skills for middle school-age students.
A graphic shows the National Science Foundation grants to Pennsylvania universities that were canceled.Click to enlarge
Cancellation of the NSF grants is the latest chapter in what university professors and other advocates in Pittsburgh have called an assault on higher education by the federal government. Last month, National Institutes of Health grants were cut to research institutions nationwide, including Pitt, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University.
In the latest round of cuts, Pitt's five NSF grants were worth $2 million and covered such topics as assessing the value of artificial intelligence projects for students ages 9-14; encouraging promising undergraduates to consider graduate school and careers in science; and exploring new ways of countering misinformation to increase public support for trust in science.
A $1 million grant to CMU was the biggest award in Pennsylvania that was withdrawn.
Bruce M. McLaren, professor in CMU's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, was the primary investigator in the past year of a three-year study that developed and tested digital games to improve math interest and competency for middle schoolers.
Mr. McLaren said he was disappointed by the grant withdrawal.
His research was helping students with math in 10 Pittsburgh area school districts, including Steel Valley in Munhall, where every middle and high school student qualifies for a free or reduced lunch. Girls, whose interest in math can be dampened by cultural norms and stereotypes as they approach adolescence, are at risk of falling behind or losing interest in math, he said, which his research project addressed.
"The idea was really just to lift up female students, so I guess that's 'woke,' " Mr. McLaren said. "It really is awful."
Since the start of the grant in 2022, some 1,000 middle school-age kids have benefited from the research project and digital math games, Mr. McLaren said.
Grant "reviewers have no idea about the science," he said. "I doubt anyone did anything more than read the abstract."
In an April 18 announcement of policy changes at the NSF, the agency denied screening grant proposals for such terms as diversity, equity and inclusion when deciding which ones to fund.
A week before the cancellation of his grant, Mr. McLaren said, the NSF had approved extending it for another year.
He said he was puzzled by the turnaround.
All of the grants ended April 18, the same day the NSF published new guidance about agency priorities. In the guidance, NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan said the agency reviews grants based on merit, competition and equal opportunity.
"Research projects with more narrow impact limited to subgroups of people based on protected class or characteristics do not effectuate NSF priorities," he wrote.
At Pitt, John Whitefoot, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials, was awarded $410,216 from the NSF to organize a summer program for undergraduate students with academic promise so they consider graduate school and careers in science they might not otherwise think about.
His grant, which was to expire in 2026, was pulled a month from when students had been chosen and the program was to start this year. Participants have gone on to enroll in doctorate programs at top universities, which is a proven record of success, he said.
The program was intended for all students, regardless of racial or cultural background, to address the need in the U.S. for more engineers.
"Is graduate school really a possibility?" he said many undergraduates wonder. "Yeah it is.
"I was one of these students, too."
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This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 8:07 AM