Political interference in grants likely to stay, increase

The Trump administration released an executive order last month giving political appointees the responsibility for reviewing and approving all grant decisions, a radical change from prior merit review processes. This builds on the politically motivated cancellation of grants at NIH, NSF and other federal agencies earlier this year and the attacks by the administration on American universities.

This movement away from pure peer review of grants is likely to hold, given recent federal court decisions allowing the administration’s cuts from earlier this year to go forward (e.g., here and here). While final decisions in most of these cases have not yet been made, it does not appear that the courts will make a significant stand against political decision-making for grants.