Delays in grant awards and funding calls worry NIH researchers

Researchers in the US might be having feelings about writing grants atm-I know I am! We still need to write them. In this Evolution Exchange, I again chat with Sam Scheiner, who summarizes how to write a competitive proposal. His advice is gold, and helpful regardless of funder. Pls RT!

Excited to share a new paper written by a AAAS Policy Fellow I mentor, Dr. Lisa Walsh. “This review synthesizes literature on fieldwork safety across scientific disciplines, highlighting four facets of safety for leaders and researchers to address: physical, social, financial, and psychological.”

makes us pretty fucking annoying TBQH 😂🤣

Researchers in the US might be having feelings about writing grants atm-I know I am! We still need to write them. In this Evolution Exchange, I again chat with Sam Scheiner, who summarizes how to write a competitive proposal. His advice is gold, and helpful regardless of funder. Pls RT!

Michiganders: Bill Huizenga (MI-04) and Tom Barrett (MI-07) are vulnerable Republicans and John James (MI-10) is running for governor so his seat is up for grabs. We have the opportunity to flip these seats to Democrats. Let’s go!

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💬 In the second installment of The Evolution Exchange, retired NSF Program Officer Dr. Sam Scheiner returns to discuss how to craft a successful research proposal. Watch or read the transcript here: www.evolutionsociety.org/the-evolutio...

📢 Now accepting proposals for the Graduate Research Excellence Grants! These provide evolutionary biology research funds for early and advanced Master’s and PhD students. Applicants must be members of SSE. Deadline: May 18, 2026 www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

The US is broadly a country that likes to invest in science. Even among Republicans this is true. But we are governed by an administration that is opposed to science, and is using procedural tools to limit spending and increase political control over the process.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers. The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

People at colleges with heavy teaching loads: prioritize quality over quantity. One strong article a year is a LOT.

Claire Shipman is a former television journalist, and it shows. Going live to tape and telling the world how your university was invaded and your student abducted on the same day is exactly how you fight authoritarianism.

The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation. “I see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSF’s ability to fund the best science.”

NSF leaders have just acknowledged what many scientists have long suspected: Presidential directives to boost AI and quantum have upended its traditional way of doing business. www.science.org/content/arti...

BREAKING: Columbia President Claire Shipman says DHS agents entered a residential buliding this morning and detained a student. "Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a 'missing person.'"

New work from the lab: Miles @milesroberts.bsky.social tried out machine learning to estimate sweep times to fixation and (spoilers) it didn't really help www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... As always, we'd appreciate any feedback!

SSE is pleased to offer free virtual #Evol2026 registration to all SSE members residing in 152 countries and territories around the world including India, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. Request your free registration code today! www.evolutionsociety.org/index.php?mo...

Reminder: the entire NSF budget is 9B and NIH like 47B. And they have 500B that they don’t know how to spend.

Apply now for the SSE Caregiver Award for up to $500 USD to help cover caregiving costs while attending virtual or in-person #Evol2026. Deadline March 15! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci... @evolmtg.bsky.social

If you're an #EcoEvo #PhD candidate anywhere in the world looking for project funding, consider applying for the @asn-amnat.bsky.social Student Research Award. Ten proposals for $2k in research funds will be awarded. Due 13 March 2026. Please share widely! 🧪 #grants #ecology #evolution #behavior

This really is a great picture:

Maxing.

“This story does not have a happy ending, and I can assure you the villains do not get punished in the end. If that is your motivation, try again, start over. But you also need to understand — and this is equally important — that we’ve already won. The reward is right now, this minute, this moment”

"I did not think the destruction would be this stupid. THAT was a surprise." WORD 🫠

some of you are looksmaxxing when you need to be booksmaxxing

Normalize laughing derisively in men's faces when they deserve it.

BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide. This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.

#SSE is extending the application deadline for the 2026 T. H. Huxley Award, named in honor of Darwin's very public supporter, which recognizes & promotes the development of high-quality evolution education resources. #aibsmember #membernews evolutionsociety.org/news/display...

Hey @derekdenney.bsky.social & Annabelle Taylor wrote a nice essay about why we should care about plant reproduction + heat. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Proposals due March 2 for the Small Grants for Local and Regional Outreach! This program awards up to $1,000 USD for a variety of evolution education and outreach projects, workshops, and events. Apply now! shorturl.at/I8HqO

In 1883, poison oak and poison ivy looked quite different 😂

Aspergillus fumigatus - 29.9 crossovers per homologous chromosome pair! That makes about 1500 recombination map units per chromosome....

Can’t imagine many are surprised

"Hold on, we actually allow a failsafe" The failsafe: Having a birth certificate, ID, and being willing to sign an affidavit on penalty of perjury. This is what gendered administrative burdens look like. academic.oup.com/jpart/articl...

Dunno about you guys But I badly needed this 'Agenda of Joy' from Joyce Vance It contains a list of things we can do to balance the stress of living in the Trump regime Balance has never been more important This really, really matters: joycevance.substack.com/p/an-agenda-...

What’s so weird about men in power is how when they face scandal and should step down the world acts like no one else can do their jobs. Bottstein, Wasserman, these aren’t irreplaceable men! Stop with this delusion.

I've been asked about how to deal with the fear of speaking out. So, I wrote about it! Fear and Fascism. SUFS Blog: www.standupforscience.net/blog/fear-an... Substack: open.substack.com/pub/sciencef... @standupforscience.bsky.social #StandUpforScience

The strength

This is a genuinely huge, sweeping victory today for the University of California—or rather, for us, its faculty, acting through our faculty associations, while the UC itself maintained a strict policy of deer-in-headlights silence. The Trump admin has given up its appeal of a powerful injunction:

Letter from Dem Senator Elissa Slotkin to Bondi & Pirro demanding they confirm by end of Friday that the "illegal orders" video investigation into her has ended 👇 Slotkin says she will "mount vindictive and selective prosecution defenses to any indictment" punchbowl.news/2026-02-12-s...

Don't forget to apply this weekend if you'd like to receive communications training and meet with lawmakers to advocate for science!

Project 2025 architect plan to make federal scientists live in terror and kill millions of innocent kids may have had some unintended consequences

So when do the rich men in the Epstein. Files face consequences www.wsj.com/finance/gold...

I cannot get over the fact that Black COLLEGE EDUCATED women were hit hardest by the federal job losses. One thing I learned while writing #TheDoubleTax is that the labor market undervalues Black women off rip. It is WILD.

Great clip for the midterms

Sen. Mark Kelly:  The most patriotic thing that any American can do right now is to continue exercising our rights, continue speaking truth to power, and not backing down."

Gotta love it: "The Stop Presidential Embezzlement Act would impose a 100 percent tax on any settlement a president, vice president, cabinet member, or member of Congress receives from the government as a result of a lawsuit filed while in office."