Proposed new US funding rules: We can cancel any grant at any time
摘要
美国拟议的新资助规则引发科学界担忧。新规将赋予政治任命官员对科研经费的最终决定权，而非依赖同行评审专家的评估。更令人关注的是，规则允许联邦机构以“不符合国家利益”为由随时取消任何已批准的资助项目，同时禁止涉及特定文化议题的研究，限制国际合作，并削减论文发表和学术会议等支出。此前特朗普政府通过行政命令推动改革，但因法律挑战而受阻，现正通过正式规则制定程序推进。
Last August, the Trump administration issued an executive order intended to fundamentally alter how grant funding is handled by the US government. Under the system that had made the US a scientific superpower, peer reviewers rated the scientific quality and feasibility of grant applications, and subject-matter experts within the funding agencies used these ratings to determine which grants got funded. Under the proposed rules, political appointees would have the final say, and they were specifically instructed not to "routinely defer" to peer reviewers.
In the interim, the administration has lost many court cases because it turns out that issuing executive orders doesn't circumvent legal requirements, and the orders can be vacated if they lack strong justification. To avoid that same fate, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has decided to merge the executive order with other administration priorities and send it through the formal federal rulemaking process.
The result is a horror show for US science research. Not only is peer review made a secondary consideration, but the new rules would allow any federal agency to cancel any grant at any time based on the vague assertion that it isn't in the "national interest." The document would also ban any grants on a number of culture war topics, limit international collaborations, and block spending on things like publishing papers and attending conferences.
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