5 ms·

This should feel personal to a lot of us. I have hopes of applying to the Small Business Innovation Research fund (https://seedfund.nsf.gov https://seedfund.nsf

This should feel personal to a lot of us. I have hopes of applying to the Small Business Innovation Research fund (https://seedfund.nsf.gov https://seedfund.nsf.gov), a program that gives small companies a good chunk of money without taking equity, in order to encourage development of technologies deemed of national importance. I’d be curious if anyone here has tried applying in the last 18 months.

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
epistasis 6mo ago
I was helping some people working on their phase I SBIR throughout the first year of Trump, and they often didn't know who to report to, as the firings were so relentless and pointless and completely disorganized. They got the highest possible rating upon completion, but have not been able to apply for Phase 2, so the project is effectively dead as they pursued other opportunities. It's hard to imaging a more wasteful and destructive set of actions over the past year, except just shutting it all down. Money was still spent, less than usual, but in a way that ensured it was squandered, and that seeds that were planted could not grow. However, it was apparently reauthorized on April 14, as my NIH newsletter this week linked to this April 21 announcement that SBIRs and STTRs are back! https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news/2026/04/its-official-nihs-small-business-program-is-back https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news...
- BidenSniffer 6mo ago
  [flagged]
  - tomlockwood 6mo ago
    The communist small business funding scheme.... Interesting.
    - nneonneo 6mo ago
      There's some troll making a dozen accounts on here to spew alt-right/MAGA nonsense, then deleting their comments (editing them to ".") once their account is burned. Don't reply, don't feed, just flag and move on.
- trinsic2 6mo ago
  Im not getting how trump can fire anyone? Does he have the authority to do that?
  - epistasis 6mo ago
    The US government is not currently in a state of following the law or constitution. People get fired, and if authority was not there, a lawsuit 9-18 months later might rectify it, and in the meantime the fired employee has moved on. DOGE cuts were extreme, capricious, and the only rhyme or reason was to try to hyperpoliticize the science to meet what people were guessing that Trump would want. On the grant side, they cut grants in an explictly racist way, according to a Reagan-appointed Republican judge that ruled aganist them way back in June of 2025; what was the remedy? Merely to reinstate the grants. Who is going to stop a lawless Trump administration? Eventually the courts, at least at the lower levers. The Supreme Court is hyper political and continue making politically-driven rewriting of law, at least as much as the public lets them. Congress has completely abdicated their constitutionally mandated roles, such as being in charge of taxation and tariffs. The government has been completely taken over by a single party, and that party is burning the Constitution and its principles. As for another example of gross mismanagment, of many many many more I could go on about, the National Cancer Institute's review board was completely disbanded, and put under the National Science Foundation where reviewers have less cancer experience, for example. To a pointy-haired-boss, that might sound like a cost savings measure but it's still the same cost, you just have less experienced people doing reviews. All this is happening and getting reported on, but it doesn't get attention because every day is pure chaos filled with outrageous violations of what used to be normal activity in the government. And its all covered up by the most popular mainstream news sources, and there's a large body of the US population that has been completely brainwashed and literally refuses to accept any criticism of the Trump administration, outright rejected facts because it hurts their feelings.
    - juniperus 6mo ago
      I'm in academia, so NSF cuts are very misguided in my view, and hopefully will be reversed in the next administration. But the first two sentences of your post immediately contradict one another. You say America is in a state of lawlessness, and then immediately describe the American legal system. So that's exactly what following the law in America has always meant. America is a common law country, not a civil law country... Litigation and court precedent is how laws are tested and affirmed in common law countries, unlike civil law countries. So that legal system isn't lawlessness, its the way law works in common law countries, which America is one of the few not using the Napoleonic code.
gte525u 6mo ago
SBIRs have been mucked up since last fall. The program lapsed and it just got reauthorized for certain departments. Without that reauth only those who had phase 1's could apply for phase 2's.
- epistasis 6mo ago
  Hey got any details about how to apply for a phase 2 if you had a successful phase 1? I know a group that would be very interested...
  - gte525u 6mo ago
    It depends - some agencies you can apply directly without doing a phase 1. Others you need talk to the TPOC of the Phase 1 to find out the process or you have to be invited. In the current environment - I would contact the TPOC - it could just be stuck in limbo.
    - epistasis 6mo ago
      many thanks!
2ndorderthought 6mo ago
I know several people who have. They cannot even get awarded funds right now. All funding is being directed to grant mills.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
cozzyd 6mo ago
some of us are also scientists who hold NSF grants (and hope to continue to hold them...) :)

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

epistasis 6mo ago

I was helping some people working on their phase I SBIR throughout the first year of Trump, and they often didn't know who to report to, as the firings were so relentless and pointless and completely disorganized. They got the highest possible rating upon completion, but have not been able to apply for Phase 2, so the project is effectively dead as they pursued other opportunities. It's hard to imaging a more wasteful and destructive set of actions over the past year, except just shutting it all down. Money was still spent, less than usual, but in a way that ensured it was squandered, and that seeds that were planted could not grow. However, it was apparently reauthorized on April 14, as my NIH newsletter this week linked to this April 21 announcement that SBIRs and STTRs are back! https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news/2026/04/its-official-nihs-small-business-program-is-back https://grants.nih.gov/news-events/nih-extramural-nexus-news...

BidenSniffer 6mo ago
[flagged]
- tomlockwood 6mo ago
  The communist small business funding scheme.... Interesting.
  - nneonneo 6mo ago
    There's some troll making a dozen accounts on here to spew alt-right/MAGA nonsense, then deleting their comments (editing them to ".") once their account is burned. Don't reply, don't feed, just flag and move on.
trinsic2 6mo ago
Im not getting how trump can fire anyone? Does he have the authority to do that?
- epistasis 6mo ago
  The US government is not currently in a state of following the law or constitution. People get fired, and if authority was not there, a lawsuit 9-18 months later might rectify it, and in the meantime the fired employee has moved on. DOGE cuts were extreme, capricious, and the only rhyme or reason was to try to hyperpoliticize the science to meet what people were guessing that Trump would want. On the grant side, they cut grants in an explictly racist way, according to a Reagan-appointed Republican judge that ruled aganist them way back in June of 2025; what was the remedy? Merely to reinstate the grants. Who is going to stop a lawless Trump administration? Eventually the courts, at least at the lower levers. The Supreme Court is hyper political and continue making politically-driven rewriting of law, at least as much as the public lets them. Congress has completely abdicated their constitutionally mandated roles, such as being in charge of taxation and tariffs. The government has been completely taken over by a single party, and that party is burning the Constitution and its principles. As for another example of gross mismanagment, of many many many more I could go on about, the National Cancer Institute's review board was completely disbanded, and put under the National Science Foundation where reviewers have less cancer experience, for example. To a pointy-haired-boss, that might sound like a cost savings measure but it's still the same cost, you just have less experienced people doing reviews. All this is happening and getting reported on, but it doesn't get attention because every day is pure chaos filled with outrageous violations of what used to be normal activity in the government. And its all covered up by the most popular mainstream news sources, and there's a large body of the US population that has been completely brainwashed and literally refuses to accept any criticism of the Trump administration, outright rejected facts because it hurts their feelings.
  - juniperus 6mo ago
    I'm in academia, so NSF cuts are very misguided in my view, and hopefully will be reversed in the next administration. But the first two sentences of your post immediately contradict one another. You say America is in a state of lawlessness, and then immediately describe the American legal system. So that's exactly what following the law in America has always meant. America is a common law country, not a civil law country... Litigation and court precedent is how laws are tested and affirmed in common law countries, unlike civil law countries. So that legal system isn't lawlessness, its the way law works in common law countries, which America is one of the few not using the Napoleonic code.

gte525u 6mo ago

SBIRs have been mucked up since last fall. The program lapsed and it just got reauthorized for certain departments. Without that reauth only those who had phase 1's could apply for phase 2's.

epistasis 6mo ago
Hey got any details about how to apply for a phase 2 if you had a successful phase 1? I know a group that would be very interested...
- gte525u 6mo ago
  It depends - some agencies you can apply directly without doing a phase 1. Others you need talk to the TPOC of the Phase 1 to find out the process or you have to be invited. In the current environment - I would contact the TPOC - it could just be stuck in limbo.
  - epistasis 6mo ago
    many thanks!

2ndorderthought 6mo ago

I know several people who have. They cannot even get awarded funds right now. All funding is being directed to grant mills.

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]

cozzyd 6mo ago

some of us are also scientists who hold NSF grants (and hope to continue to hold them...) :)