Via Joshua Weitz, I see this morning that the NSF has released the call for applications to the next cohort of its Graduate Research Fellowships. This is an improvement in some respects over last year’s GRF competition—released about two months ahead of an October deadline for applications in the Life Sciences, instead of half that advance notice—but it also continues worrying trends at NSF by dramatically cutting the number of GRFs to be awarded, and dropping support for an important field, STEM Education.

It also makes clear NSF intends to continue the change introduced last year, that applicants enrolled in a graduate program only remain eligible through the end of their first year in their first graduate program. That tightening of the eligibility sets up some bad incentives for students, I think, and I fear it’s going to disadvantage those who are enrolled in master’s programs.