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In the sections below we provide a list of resources to contextualize the notice, as well as information to write and submit your own public comments
The Federal Register is the official daily publication of the U.S. federal government. All proposed and final rules are required to be published in the Federal Register. When writing a public comment, the proposed rule (or Notice, in this case) is the most critical document to read thoroughly, since your public comment is in response to this document. The best place to start is the “Background” or “Introduction” section, as those sections provide useful information about the history of an issue and the agency’s assertion about its authority or responsibility to (de)regulate it, and they often provide information about assumptions that may underlie the proposals.
The Federal Register notice for this notice can be found here:
The proposed changes would codify many alterations from the OMB proposed rule into NSF policy. The proposed NSF changes align directly with the previously proposed OMB rule, as evidenced by the summary of major changes in the chart below.
| Key Proposed OMB Changes | • Grants would be eligible for termination at any time if they are inconsistent with “agency priorities” or “national interest”, making it impossible to guarantee the continuity of long-term studies or research
• Political appointees would conduct review of grant awards, rather than scientists or program officers
• Independent expert peer review would become “recommended,” rather than standard at nearly every federal science agency
• Collaboration with certain countries would be prohibited, preventing international partnerships
• Research related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) would be prohibited, including any federal awards that seek to support theories of disparate impact liability
• Grantees would not be able to use funding for open access publications, meaning that research results would largely be published in subscription-based journals not freely accessible to the public |
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| Key Proposed NSF Changes | • At any time, agencies would have the ability to terminate already issued awards, or decline to issue an award if the project does not align with the administration’s political priorities, making long-term research highly uncertain
• All types of NSF awards, including fellowships, training grants, and undergraduate research would require approval from a politically appointed official
◦ This would undermine the NSF’s long standing merit-review process
• Collaboration with a list of restricted entities would be entirely prohibited, replacing the current policies for evaluating potential NSF collaborations
• Environmental justice considerations would be removed along with other language, references, or requirements from revoked executive orders
• Grant funding could not be used to support publication costs or travel to conferences |
The docket on regulations.gov is the home for documents relevant to a rule, including the notice itself, technical supporting documentation, regulatory or other impact analyses, and other documents the rulemaking working group deems necessary. Public comments that have already been submitted can also be found in the docket. Anyone can submit a public comment digitally through the docket on regulations.gov.
The docket for this notice can be found in Docket ID No. NSF-2026-OTR-0001 at Regulations.gov, here:
For this notice in particular, all of the related information is housed within a single document in the docket:
You can also view public comments already submitted by other organizations or individuals here: