Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens national-security protections by restricting NSF partnerships with entities tied to controlled or sanctioned foreign actors, but it risks disrupting research funding, increasing compliance costs, and chilling legitimate collaborations for U.S. researchers, universities, and small firms.
U.S. researchers and universities without ties to listed foreign-controlled entities keep NSF funding priority, protecting eligible scientists and institutions from losing access to grants.
The NSF is explicitly authorized to avoid research partnerships that could transfer critical technologies to sanctioned or controlled foreign actors, giving the agency clearer authority to protect sensitive research and national security.
Researchers who have collaborations or prior contracts with listed foreign entities may lose NSF grant eligibility, jeopardizing ongoing projects, funding, and academic careers.
Universities and research labs will face increased compliance burdens and may reduce international collaborations, raising administrative costs and slowing scientific progress.
Small U.S. firms with supply-chain or partner links to listed entities risk exclusion from NSF-funded research, limiting commercialization opportunities and potential job growth in the tech sector.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prevents the NSF Director from giving grants or assistance to people or entities affiliated with organizations on specified U.S. export-control or NDAA-required lists and their related entities.
Introduced January 9, 2025 by Rick W. Allen · Last progress January 9, 2025
Prohibits the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) from giving grants or other assistance to any person or entity that is affiliated with, or has a relationship (including research partnerships, joint ventures, or contracts) with, organizations listed on certain U.S. export-control and defense-related lists or any of their parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, or entities they own or control. The bill references entities listed in Supplement No. 4 to 15 C.F.R. part 744 (Export Administration Regulations) and the lists required by specified National Defense Authorization Act provisions (or successor lists), and defines the Export Administration Regulations as subchapter C of chapter VII of title 15, CFR or successor regulations. The effect is to bar NSF funding to applicants with specified affiliations or relationships to targeted foreign-controlled entities and to require NSF to follow those list-based eligibility limits when awarding grants or assistance.