Scientists sue to stop NSF from closing its social science unit

Three scientific societies and two college instructors sued the National Science Foundation on Nov. 9 to stop the agency from closing its Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences, known as SBE, which funds most federal basic research in those fields.

The suit was filed in federal court in Boston, The Boston Globe reported, with the legal group Democracy Forward as counsel. The plaintiffs are the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society. The two individuals are Gregg Sparkman, an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College, and Jenna Croteau, a lecturer in linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The defendants are the foundation and Brian Stone, who is performing the duties of its director, according to Higher Ed Dive. The complaint says NSF leaders violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the law that created the agency. It says the foundation announced the closure on its own in April, did not weigh the consequences and gave no official reason.

The Globe reported that the complaint also argues NSF cannot close the directorate without consulting the National Science Board and without explaining its decision. The suit asks the court to reverse the decision and block the closure, according to Higher Ed Dive.

The complaint says the harm would be permanent. “The harms to these scientists and their scientific research, and to science itself, will be irreparable,” the Globe quoted the filing as saying.

SBE hands out about $247 million a year in grants, nearly two-thirds of federal grant funding in these fields, according to NSF figures cited by Higher Ed Dive. The complaint says “hundreds of promising research projects” would not go ahead without that money and that thousands of people would lose their jobs.

NSF announced in April that it would eliminate SBE in fiscal year 2027, the Globe reported. SBE is one of the foundation’s eight divisions. Both Higher Ed Dive and Common Dreams report that, since the announcement, NSF has reassigned almost all of the directorate’s staff. Higher Ed Dive also reported that the agency’s last permanent director resigned in April 2025 and that it has no deputy director.

NSF spokesperson Mike England told The New York Times that the directorate “has not been shut down,” the Globe reported. He said the agency has been “actively engaging in prudent planning and taking steps to implement the president’s agenda” and that NSF “regularly evaluates its portfolio of funding opportunities to ensure alignment with agency priorities.”

A White House spokesperson told The Atlantic in May that the administration “is committed to cementing America’s dominance in cutting-edge technologies of the future,” Higher Ed Dive reported.

Juliane Baron, executive director of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, called the plan “a crushing blow to the behavioral and brain sciences,” the Globe reported. Jennifer Kubota, president of the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society, said eliminating SBE funding “threatens decades of scientific progress and the next generation of scientists.” Steven J. Stroessner, executive officer of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, said “scientific discoveries do not happen on command.”

Jon Freeman, a Columbia University psychology professor and board member of the federation, called dismantling SBE “scientific self-sabotage,” according to the Globe.

The complaint runs 37 pages, the Globe reported.