The agency targeted grants focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as research on misinformation.
Casey Fiesler, an information science professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, learned late on Friday evening that one of the three grants she had been awarded by the National Science Foundation was being terminated.
“It was a total surprise,” Dr. Fiesler said. “This is the one that I thought was totally safe.”
The grant supported Dr. Fiesler’s research on building A.I. literacy. She received no official explanation for why the grant was being terminated more than a year ahead of its scheduled end. But Dr. Fiesler speculated that it had something to do with the word “misinformation” in the award’s abstract.
Dr. Fiesler was not alone. As of Monday, the National Science Foundation had canceled more than 400 active awards, according to a list obtained by The New York Times. The decision comes after months of scrutiny of the agency, including a report released by Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, last October and, in February, an internal review of awards containing words related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I.
In January, the Trump administration attempted to freeze grant payments for existing awards at the N.S.F.. A temporary restraining order lifted the freeze. The order also said that the agency could not terminate active awards to comply with President Trump’s executive orders, one of which called for an end to “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” under the premise of D.E.I. across the federal government.
In a statement on Friday, the N.S.F. said that its grant cancellations were not in violation of the temporary restraining order. When asked by The Times to provide clarification on the legality of the grant cancellations, the agency declined to comment.
The National Science Foundation, established in 1950, finances much of the scientific research that takes place in the United States, ranging from astronomy and quantum computing to microbiology and education in science technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM.
