The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is tightening conflict-of-interest (COI) restrictions for its staff and peer reviewers in a move many researchers worry will further complicate workloads at the agency, which has lost roughly one-third of its workforce over the past 18 months. Under the current rules to avoid bias, reviewers can generally participate in a panel – and agency staff can help run the review – as long as they recuse themselves from decisions on proposals from their own institution.

The new policy, laid out in an internal document will go into effect on 3 August, 2026 and prohibit both groups from participating in any panel if they have an institutional COI with any proposal. Each year NSF evaluates about 40,000 proposals for scientific merit and selects roughly 10,000 for funding. Roughly 90% of proposals are reviewed by panels or internally by staff. The new policy could dramatically narrow the pool of experts who can be involved with this review. It could also increase the number of panels, or ad hoc reviews outside of panels, needed to avoid COIs, say NSF staff.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-imposes-stricter-conflict-interest-rules-grant-review-panels

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