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NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

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Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#201

Post by i80and »

devwastaken wrote: post #180
ddahlen wrote: post #38

I have been in and out of the academic world my entire career. I have worked as a programmer/engineer for two universities and a national lab, and worked at a startup founded by some professors. There is huge uncertainty with the people whom I have worked with, nobody seems to be sure what is going to happen, but it feels like it wont be good. Hiring freezes, international graduate students receiving emails to self d…

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This is deeply detached from reality.

I assure you, private R&D is voraciously reading published publicly funded papers.

It's a significant PR issue that this misconception about how R&D works gets propagated ad nauseum.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#202

Post by damnitbuilds »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #184
ourmandave wrote: post #35

Last week, staff were briefed on a new process for vetting grant proposals that are found to be out of step with a presidential directive on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),... In the new structure, even if a revised proposal gets the green light from a division director, a new body whose membership has not been determined will take a fresh look to ensure it conforms to the agency’s new standard for making awa…

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"If it's not ideologically aligned it won't get funded."

As I show elsewhere in this thread, the previous administration forced applicants to include irrelevant DEI language in grant applications.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#203

Post by coliveira »

antonvs wrote: post #9

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While I disagree with this perception that Trump is a "Russian asset", whatever this means, I agree that his whole goal in the second term is to punish the people who opposed him in the first term. He'll do everything he can to make their lives miserable for the foreseeable future, and he doesn't care if this will destroy the country.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#204

Post by ujkhsjkdhf234 »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #114
rokkamokka wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The focus is robbing the treasury to give tax breaks to the rich.

Trump said yesterday he wants to raise taxes on people earning over $2.5MM[1] People on the left are going to be caught totally flat-footed if they don't pull their head out of their bubble. Trump is a populist president. He was elected by working class individuals and so far he has shown every intent of following through for them. People on the left don't recognize it because they don't recognize the tools that righ…

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Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#205

Post by hackyhacky »

762236 wrote: post #172
ourmandave wrote: post #35

Last week, staff were briefed on a new process for vetting grant proposals that are found to be out of step with a presidential directive on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),... In the new structure, even if a revised proposal gets the green light from a division director, a new body whose membership has not been determined will take a fresh look to ensure it conforms to the agency’s new standard for making awa…

DEI in practice is illegal (we don't get to make decisions based on race, or other protected categories of a person's identity). I get trained on this once a year at work. What we do instead is improve the probability that underrepresented people can enter the hiring pipeline, e.g., by investing in schools.

> DEI in practice is illegal

No, it isn't, and this assumption is based on a poor understanding of what DEI is.

The right paints DEI as a directive to hire less-qualified people based on their race. In reality, DEI just ensures that everyone gets a fair chance regardless of their race.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#206

Post by i80and »

inverted_flag wrote: post #189
bilbo0s wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought HN User burnte was being hyperbolic in the assertions that post put forth. Then I read a few articles. sigh. I mean, I guess we'll try to find competent and sane leaders again in 4 years. I don't know? There's not much else we can do at this point if this is the level of irrationality you're dealing with. I'll add in way of explanation to non-US citizens that in the US, we've always had a fixation on certai…

> I mean, I guess we'll try to find competent and sane leaders again in 4 years. I don't know? There's not much else we can do at this point if this is the level of irrationality you're dealing with. There are absolutely not going to be free and fair elections 4 years from now. People really need to start preparing for this reality.

I still think it's possible we'll have free elections still, assuming the SAVE act fails.

If it passes, as a democracy we're probably failed beyond repair in my lifetime.

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#207

Post by dragonwriter »

coliveira wrote: post #203
antonvs wrote: post #9

[flagged]

While I disagree with this perception that Trump is a "Russian asset", whatever this means, I agree that his whole goal in the second term is to punish the people who opposed him in the first term. He'll do everything he can to make their lives miserable for the foreseeable future, and he doesn't care if this will destroy the country.

> While I disagree with this perception that Trump is a "Russian asset", whatever this means

If you don't understand what it means, how can you know you disagree with it?

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#208

Post by wang_li »

tachim wrote: post #52
DiffEq wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> You are implying a few things here; that it is the responsibility of others to fund your success and that there were not, or will not be, alternative means of such funding. Yes, the government funds research, the benefit of which accrues to all of society. There is no credible alternative to government funding for public research; the scales are not the same. Private funding of basic research (internal R&D budgets)…

When you speak in abstracts and generic terms about the value of government funding research, you are saying nothing meaningful in terms of knowing whether the government should spend more or less on research. If the OP's specific research was into The Changing Mating Habits of the Delta Smelt Due to Habitat Destruction, then probably it was money that could far better spent paying tuition for, say, medical students or even just letting tax payers keep their money and spend it in a way that directly benefits their family, their community, and themselves. Otherwise you are just handwaving and demanding everyone assume that all research is good and should be publicly funded.

In terms of cutting NSF budget, they have issued grants for things that explicitly violate Title IX of the Civil Rights act.[1] You can't justify all NSF spending by cherry picking successful past spending. We can evaluate the benefits of proposed research and whether it aligns with the intentions and values of society at large. We don't have to spend because someone incanted the words "Because SCIENCE!" over a bubbling beaker.

1. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2424507&His...

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#209

Post by UncleOxidant »

> appears to be driven in part by President Donald Trump’s proposal to cut the agency’s $4 billion budget by 55%

NSF is essentially investing in the future and $4B is already a very small amount compared to the whole federal budget. If anything NSF's budget should be increased. Why are they looking to save pocket change when the real money is in the DoD?

Re: NSF faces shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

#210

Post by cmontella »

TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #200
ausbah wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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If that's how you're using it, then you're doing it wrong, because you're supposed to be supervising the drive the entire time. It's not self-driving if you're supervising. And you're required to supervise because... they're not confident it can actually self-drive.
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