Scientists find it difficult to pay invoices after the NSF suspends salary payments

A scientist sent a text to his owner to say that the February rent would be late. Another could not pay for his credit card bill. However, another wondered how long he could afford his mortgage.

These are some of the effects of the federal financing freezing of President Trump on postdoctoral researchers that count on subsidies from the National Science Foundation. Although a judge blocked this suspension on Tuesday before it could take effect, and the administration canceled the memo who ordered it on Wednesday, Thursday, the NSF online payment system was still down, throwing lives in uncertainty. An NSF email seen by Stat suggested that wages had been suspended to “guarantee that only eligible activities” are funded.

“If the frost is not stopped, I could lose my house,” said a biologist making a postdoctoral scholarship in the Southeast, who spoke provided that neither his name nor his state of residence is used out of fear reprisals. He said he had enough in his bank account to last until March, but had no idea of ​​the duration of the remuneration stop.

Bolton Howes, a geologist who studies how climate change about 56 million years ago shifted the course of rivers, has an equally thin financial cushion. When he woke up on Thursday to find that his salary was still frozen, he contacted his owner to say that his February rent will arrive late. She understood, he said; She had dealt with problems in her own work caused by the freezing of funding. He has an emergency fund that could cover a single month of rent, but he was reluctant to use it, in case he had to face an unexpected expenditure like a broken down or a medical invoice. “If I had to get sick, it would be a disaster,” said Howes, a scholarship holder funded by the NSF with a joint appointment at the University of Washington and at Western Washington University.

“I’m going to eat food this month, but it’s because I have a credit card,” he continued. “Like, I’m not worried about being hungry.” But he feared that if it had not been settled, he will be faced with debt.

Asked about the situation by email, Michael England, head of the NSF media, wrote: “Our absolute priority is to take over our actions and financing services to the research community and our stakeholders. We work quickly to perform a complete examination of our projects, programs and activities to comply with existing decrees. »»

This suggests that the agency would pay any of its beneficiaries before determining that their work was not in conflict with the executive orders of President Trump, including diversity initiatives and the protection of transgender rights. England has refused to answer other questions.

“We do not have any idea when we will be paid,” said Julia Van Etten, NSF scholarship system both at Rutgers University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which studies how DNA is transferred Between the microbes. “It could be today, the website goes up. It could be in six months. We have the impression that as soon as the NSF has finished investigating us for Dei or something else, we will be paid again. I don’t think my grant has disappeared.

But she pointed out that many in her position had just finished their doctorate “Most of us live the pay check for a pay check, so even get a weekly pay check is like a huge business for us “She said. She expected a pay check on Tuesday, with which she planned to repay a credit card invoice. Now, unable to pay it, the amount it should cultivate.

Over the jobs, some NSF scholarships funded directly are unusual. While some NSF programs involve a fixed payment calendar, in these scholarships, the beneficiaries can technically withdraw the value of their whole year in one stroke, as soon as they get the subsidy. But the recipients are informed that it is usual for them to withdraw it a little, as a monthly salary. This is why different comrades could be on slightly different remuneration times and why the biologist in the Southeast has more cushion for the moment he could not otherwise: at the end of 2024, he had withdrew more Salary that usually because he feared his remuneration can be interrupted by a government closure.

Thus, when the members of a Slack group for post-doctoral students financed by the NSF heard of the frost of federal financing at the beginning of this week, many thought that they could give themselves financial stability by the confusion in Connecting to the payment portal and asking for a payment before the Freeze came into force as planned at the end of the working day on Tuesday. According to Van Etten, the thought was: “I hope that if we can ask for the salary of the remaining year before 5 pm, then it may be a non-problub. If it is applied and takes months to solve, at least we will have our salary so that we can continue to function as usual. »»

She said that she knew hundreds of postdoctoral researchers who did something like that, herself among them. But a few minutes before the 5th row, when the frost would have entered into force, a judge had not intervened, an official of the NSF sent an email to the beneficiaries of subsidies, claiming that the system by which their payments were treated would be paused. “You will receive cancellation notices for any waiting payment transaction to allow delivery, pending additional advice, to guarantee that only eligible activities are included in future payment requests,” said the email.

Indeed, Thursday, another email arrived from NSF saying that all the transactions submitted on Tuesday had been canceled, and that the beneficiaries were encouraged to review the rules before submitting once the payment system was back online online .

How exactly an office can continue to adopt a financing freeze which has been blocked in court remains uncertain, but as the NPR has reported, the NSF is mandated by the Congress to examine how its subsidies improve the participation of sub-groups Represented in science, creating a possible conflict with the decree of the president. Other agencies have taken on different bugs. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a memo ordering the cessation of all “programs, personal, activities or contracts promoting” diversity, equity and inclusion “. That candidates include an inclusive and fair research promotion plan.

In addition to the generalized confusion, the researchers financed by the NSF also wondered exactly how it would be determined if their projects involved subjects which were now prohibited. As the southeast biologist said, “how will the knife be careful?”

There were also other concerns that are also looming – about American science which has lagged behind the United States undergoing the type of brain leak from which it had previously benefited. For many, however, the most immediate concern was to be paid.

This story has been updated to include new information.