Why the People of NSF Are the Backbone of American Innovation

When Expertise Vanishes, Innovation Stalls

One morning this spring, pediatricians across the country woke up to a jarring headline: the federal “Safe to Sleep” staff had gone dark. For decades, this NIH-led campaign had cut infant sleep-related deaths nearly in half. But in April, a sweeping layoff eliminated the small team behind it. Overnight, a life-saving public health effort was left in limbo. “If we take the messaging out, then more babies are going to die,” one doctor warned.

This isn’t an isolated incident. When federal science agencies lose expert staff, critical work often grinds to a halt. During the 2013 government shutdown, NIH had to furlough most of its employees – about 200 patients (including children with cancer) were turned away from last-chance clinical trials – while at the Centers for Disease Control, a Salmonella outbreak went understaffed until furloughed “disease detectives” were called back.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a rash of such disruptions. A layoff at the CDC axed its lead-poisoning prevention team, halting plans for school water testing in Milwaukee. The FDA’s medical device unit abruptly cut 200 expert reviewers, slowing approvals of pacemakers and cancer diagnostics and raising safety fears. Nearly half of National Weather Service offices have been left understaffed, prompting warnings that “we will inevitably lose lives” in severe weather as a result. The common thread: when the experts leave, missions falter, and cost savings are eclipsed by the cost of the fallout.

This article explores the potential impacts of the recent restructuring at the National Science Foundation (NSF)—including the elimination of its 37 research divisions and extensive reductions in force—focusing specifically on how these changes could affect the scientists, researchers, and administrators whose expertise and dedication have long fueled NSF’s mission of supporting American innovation.

What’s at Stake at NSF?

Now consider what’s at stake as loss of independent, professional staff engulfs the National Science Foundation. NSF’s fingerprints are on many of the breakthroughs that define modern life – the Internet and the first web browsers, Google’s core search algorithm, MRI machines in every hospital, LASIK eye surgery, even the early building blocks of today’s AI revolution. Behind each of those breakthroughs were dedicated NSF staff who recognized the potential and guided it to reality.

These public servants are not merely shuffling papers; they are often catalysts and stewards of discovery. NSF program officers act as venture mentors for science. Through programs like “America’s Seed Fund” and the Innovation Corps (I-Corps), they have coached scrappy startups that nobody else would fund – which have grown into companies like Symantec and Qualcomm – and trained thousands of scientists to become entrepreneurs turning their research into real-world ventures.

NSF’s experts ensure that brilliant ideas don’t die on the vine. Each year, they sift through tens of thousands of funding proposals to identify the most promising research. It’s their seasoned judgment that picks winners – and sometimes, that means betting on a long-shot. The world’s first web browser and the LIGO gravitational-wave observatory were high-risk ideas that NSF program directors fought to fund when others might have passed. That persistence paid off in market-shifting discoveries. These staffers also keep research honest: they weed out duplication and even cut off grants if a project isn’t panning out, redirecting funds to where they’ll have real impact. In short, they act like gardeners of the innovation ecosystem – planting new ideas, pruning the dead wood, and nurturing each promising shoot with care.

Critically, NSF’s people are the great connectors in American science. They bridge academia, industry, and government, orchestrating collaborations that no algorithm or spreadsheet could manage. In 2020, for example, NSF program managers united five agencies to co-fund 18 AI research institutes, turning a $20 million NSF investment into a $50 million national initiative. This kind of behind-the-scenes coordination is the air-traffic control of innovation – human glue ensuring that big endeavors don’t collide or fall through the cracks. These staff are the invisible backbone of our scientific enterprise, holding everything upright.

Cutting Experts does not Cut Costs

Why, then, might one target these people for cuts? One \notion is that it will save money. The truth is, NSF’s entire administrative budget is around 4% of its total funding. Agencies like CDC and NIH likewise spend the vast bulk of their budgets on actual programs, not salaries. Firing experts barely dents the federal budget, but it guts oversight and know-how – often resulting in wasted money when projects falter without guidance. Another false claim is that the private sector or automation can fill the gap. But no private equity investor is going to fund long-term, high-risk basic research the way NSF does, and AI can amplify but not replace the wisdom of a seasoned program officer. Remember, it was a tiny NSF grant that launched Symantec when no one else would invest, and it was NSF staff who saw potential in mRNA vaccines and internet protocols decades before they changed the world. And when the FDA tried outsourcing or automating its review process, the result was poorer quality and greater danger for patients. In short, cutting the “people behind progress” doesn’t streamline innovation – it undermines it.

Protecting America’s Scientific Future

America’s scientific enterprise runs on people – brilliant, dedicated people in our laboratories and in our federal agencies. The staff of NSF and other science agencies are the special forces of science, working quietly to ensure breakthroughs can happen. Failing to protect them is akin to snapping the spine of U.S. innovation. We need our backbone strong.

We still have time to course-correct. Congress and the White House can act to halt the shortsighted layoffs and hiring freezes that hollow out expertise. They must recognize that expert staff are not a luxury to be tossed aside, but a critical investment – a human multiplier – that pays off many times over. Thought leaders and voters, too, should push back against the narrative of the “bloated bureaucracy” by highlighting stories of public servants saving lives and enabling leaps of progress.

The people of NSF are quiet heroes of American innovation. They have earned our protection and support. Let’s remember the lesson of these cautionary tales – from Safe to Sleep to cancer trials to weather warnings – and choose to strengthen, not dismantle, the human foundation of our scientific future. If we preserve the talent and passion of our science workforce, we preserve the promise of the next great discovery that will keep America at the forefront. It’s a hopeful path, and it’s ours to take.

Tagging colleagues who admire our the professionals at NSF:

Riley Mulcahy ; Jessica Grady Heard ; Emine Sahin Topalcengiz ; Inez N. Moore, PhD ; Cheri Fancsali ; Adam Gamoran ; Monica McGill ; Marilyn (Mari) Sango-Jordan ; Renee Rubin Ross Ph.D ; Jesus Soriano ; Mary Ann Simpson ; Maxine McKinney de Royston ; Elaine Menardi ; Pushpita Chatterjee ; Richard Anthony Tagle ; Milena Cuellar ; Barbara Pape ; Arnold F Fege ; Azuri Gonzalez, Ed.D. ; Sasha Palmquist ; Amanda Wortman ; Jamie Wallace ; John Q. Easton ; Stephanie A. Goodwin, Ph.D. ; Hillary Moglen ; Jeremy Koster ; Kathleen Kennedy Manzo, M.Ed. ; Nikki Wallace ; Tony Gilbert ; Amy Rodgers ; Michael Kubiak ; Tammie Visintainer ; H. Chad Lane ; Maya Garcia ; María Elena Ornelas ; Ethan Prall ; Tatiane Russo-Tait, Ph.D. (opinions are my own) ; Lalita A ; Todd Campbell ; Nancy Waymack ; Ann Edwards ; Jennifer Womble ; Eric Nentrup ; Brian Brady ; Kevin Walthers ; Ali Rahmanipur ; Joseph P. Wilson, Ph.D. ; Rafi Santo ; Sheila Tabanli, Ph.D. ; Stephen Lynch ; Megan D. ; Susan M. McMillan, Ph.D. ; Robert Russell ; Terri Pigott ; Shalin Jyotishi ; Greg Sommers ; Bonnie Green ; Wayne Johnson ; Deborah D. Stine ; Rebecca Garelli ; Derek Price ; Henrietta Edmonds ; Jan Morrison Andrea Ingram ; Chung-Ho Lin ; Penny Firth ; Stuart Borrett ; Karl Newyear r; George (Chris) Kenry ; Stacye Thrasher Brim, PMP, LSSGB ; Ren M. ; Eric Anderson ; Mary Lou Maher ; Eyal Saiet ; Jonathan Peters, PhD ; Lisa Savčak ; Kristan Van Hook ; Ashley M. Pierce, MSc, PhD ; Sohn Cook ; Gay Stewart ; Ann Turner ; Bipasha Mukherjee-Clavin ; Shoa-Kai Liu ; Feng Liu, Ph.D. ; Sandra Cruz-Pol ; Arjan Kuijper ; Andrew Muccio ; Shanchieh Jay Yang ; Jason Gallo ; M. Shane Tutwiler, EdD ; Andrew Knyazev ; Joelle Thresher ; Tomasz Durakiewicz ; Ugur Kale ; Ashley R. Sanders, Ph.D. ; Richard Ferguson ; Jesús M. Velázquez ; Shawana Tabassum, PhD ; Birgit Schwenzer ; Bettina Schuffert ; Cristina Lozano Argüelles, Ph.D. ; JoAnn Slama Lighty ; Kimberly Stull ; Stephanie L Gage, PhD ; Adriana Facundo ; Lara Perez-Felkner ; Jessica H. ; Jamie Payton ; James Deemy ; Nicolle R Fuller ; Blair Lehman ; Eric Fielding ; Hayley Cleary ; Gena Morin ; Elsa Bailey ; Danielle Gioia, Ph.D. ; Shannon Pruden ; Jamie Shackelford ; Melissa Koch ; Navo Washington ; Laurie Burns McRobbie ; Imène Ghernati, PhD (إيمان غرناطي) ; A Loskota ; Cindy Hmelo-Silver ; Nicole K. Mayberry, Ph.D. ; H. Colleen Sinclair ; Amanda O'Mara ; Christian A. Meissner ; Dennis Tran ; Linda Collins ; Joe Witte ; Sharon Homer-Drummond, Ph.D. ; Riley McIsaac ; Caterina Azzarello ; Teresa Lara-Meloy ; Josh Chamot ; Arthur Daemmrich ; Julee Newberger ; Gurjeet Dhillon, PMP ; Travis Weiland ; Ryan Comes ; Amanda Bastoni ; Angela Calabrese Barton ; Sarah Nordmann ; Omowole Jesse Alexander ; Rachel Upton ; Lynnette Madsen ; Sam Tumolo ; Dr. Rebecca Thornton, Ed.D. ; Keely Baronak ; Stephen Sireci ; Lindsay Jones ; Tara Czupryk ; Jackie DeLisi ; Lisa Schiff ; Marvin Barksdale, JD ; Dr. Chantell Manahan, CETL ; Jim Kohlmoos ; Chris Thorn ; Kara Finnigan ; Tina C. ; Hao Su ; Amy Pallant ; Sarah Howorth, Ph.D, BCBA-D ; Okhee Lee ; Joseph Taylor ; Michael Klein ; Sara Schapiro ; Donald Peurach ; Iris R. Wagstaff, Ph.D. ; Ruby Batz ; Gabriela Lee ; Brenda Jorgensen Dietrich ; Ching-Ching Lin, Ed. D ; Josh Snodgrass ; Harish Bhat ; Kaylyn Zipp ; Sai Gattupalli, Ph.D. ; Gavin T. L. Brown ; Robyn Smyth ; Sonia Vohnout ; Dr. Rachid Ejjami ; Melissa Lane ; Angel Arias ; Marianne B. .; Frank Padellaro ; Anthony Otero ; Craig Strang ; Chris Roman ; Miriam Lara-Mejia - La Gorda Feminista ; Kanene Ayo Holder ; Kimberly Tran Wendy Jepson ; Stephanie Nevill ; Anne Kelly ; Michał Krompiec ; Robert Bialas ; Gabriella Katz ; Lizette Navarrete-Burks ; Josh Sheldon ; Hanna Terletska ; Carolyn Paola ; Carrie Kouadio ; Monica Kessel, EdD ; Daniel Pimentel ; Andrew Coppens ; Angela L. Sharpe ; Jayson Seaman ; Nuria Jaumot-Pascual ; Jenny Phan ; Jeff Kilner ; Nathan Anderson Quarderer .