NSF Will Cut Grant Solicitations in Half After Losing 35% of Staff
March 6, 2026 · 2 min read
Claire Cummings
The National Science Foundation will slash its grant solicitations from over 200 to roughly 100 or fewer, Chief Management Officer Micah Cheatham told the National Science Board on February 25. The consolidation follows a year in which the agency lost 35 percent of its workforce.
Cheatham framed the move as applicant-friendly: fewer solicitations mean researchers spend less time figuring out which submission pathway fits their work. Instead of solicitations tied to specific program officers with fixed funding pools, NSF will use broader calls and technology-based routing to direct proposals to appropriate reviewers.
Why Researchers Are Worried
Board member Dorota Grejner-Brzezińska of the University of Wisconsin-Madison raised a pointed concern: fewer solicitations could disadvantage junior faculty who rely on targeted career-launching grants. When a narrow solicitation disappears into a broader umbrella, early-career researchers compete against established labs with longer publication records and deeper networks.
The consolidation also arrives alongside NSF's practice of frontloading multi-year grant funding — issuing full award amounts upfront rather than in annual increments. Combined with fewer entry points, this could create a funding landscape where winning an initial award matters more than ever.
The Staffing Crisis Behind the Cuts
NSF's workforce dropped from approximately 2,000 to 1,300 employees — a reduction Cheatham himself described as "too low." The cuts stemmed from a Department of Government Efficiency executive order and voluntary separation programs that triggered early retirements and drained institutional expertise. The agency now plans to hire back toward the staffing level permitted in the FY2026 budget request, though no specific target has been disclosed.
Chief of Staff Brian Stone said the restructuring flattened NSF's management from five layers to three, which he characterized as improving decision speed.
What Grant Seekers Should Do Now
Researchers who previously targeted niche NSF solicitations should monitor the NSF funding page closely as consolidation rolls out. Proposals may need to be reframed for broader calls. Tools like Granted can help track which solicitations survive and which merge. The window to adapt is now — not after your preferred program disappears.