August 2013

Without explanation, the National Science Foundation recently cancelled its next round of political science funding, which covers the remainder of 2013. The announcement comes soon after passage of new restrictions that limit NSF political science funding to grants that promote “national security or the economic interests of the United States,” as the agency must certify.

In the journal Nature, Michael Brintnall, executive director of the American Political Science Association, called the funding cut “troubling” and said that “it’s hard to imagine that [the new congressional restriction] is not a factor in the decision.”

AERA Executive Director Felice Levine has spoken out numerous times on the importance of protecting the integrity of independent review, and the danger the NSF political science precedent poses to all science, particularly to social and behavioral fields.

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