Oh Where, Oh Where, is the Science Too Woke?

On February 11, 2025, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation released the findings of an investigation headed by Ted Cruz on the ‘woke DEI’ grants funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The press release alleged that Cruz had unveiled over $2 billion in funding “diverted toward questionable projects that promoted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) or advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” (2025), linking to Cruz’s database of awards under scrutiny. This project maps the locations of recipients whose grants were included in this database and provides a closer look into the scientific research vulnerable under this administration.

Click here to review the database.

What type of science is being targeted?

This database has flagged research across a range of scientific disciplines, from computer engineering to cancer diagnostics to marine chemistry and beyond. Whether its primary goal is to identify systemic racism in mathematics (Georgia Research Foundation) or to develop hemorrhage-treating technology (CUNY), any NSF grant including one of the following words is subject to severe scruitny:

• activism/activists/advocacy/advocate(s)
• barrier(s)
• biased/biases/biased toward/biases towards
• bipoc
• black and latinx
• community diversity
• community equity
• cultural differences
• cultural heritage
• culturally responsive
• disability/disabilities
• discriminated/discrimination/discriminatory
• diverse backgrounds/diverse community/diverse communities/diverse group(s)
• diversified/diversify/diversifying
• diversity and inclusion
• diversity equity
• enhance the diversity
• enhancing diversity
• equal opportunity
• equality
• equitable/equity
• ethnicity
• excluded
• female(s)
• fostering inclusivity
• gender(s)
• gender diversity
• hate speech
• hispanic minority
• historically
• implicit bias(es)
• inclusion/inclusive/inclusiveness/inclusivity
• increase diversity/increase the diversity
• indigenous community
• inequality/inequalities
• inequitable/inequities
• institutional
• Lgbt
• marginalize/marginalized
• minority/minorities
• multicultural
• polarization
• political
• prejudice
• privileges
• promoting diversity
• race and ethnicity
• racial
• racial diversity
• racial inequality
• racial justice
• racially
• racism
• sense of belonging
• sexual preferences
• social justice
• sociocultural
• socioeconomic
• status
• stereotypes
• systemic
• trauma
• under appreciated
• under represented/underrepresentation/underrepresented
• under served
• undervalued
• victim
• women
• women and underrepresented

Excerpts from NSF grants included in the Cruz database of politicized, woke research:

• University of Rochester
  • THE RESEARCH OF THZ SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN LIMITED TO THE MARGINAL POWER LEVEL OF AVAILABLE LASERS WITH NANO-JOULE TO MJ LASER PULSE ENERGY. THE PROJECT IS BASIC SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION, APPLIED DEVICE INNOVATION, AND A PILOT TEST FOR THE EXTREME THZ SCIENCE WITH ULTRA-INTENSE LASER PULSES. GREATER THAN KJ LASER PULSE ENERGY WITH LESS THAN 1 PS LASER PULSE DURATION FOR THE THZ SCIENCE IS NOT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation
  • UNDERSTANDING NATURE AND LOS ANGELES BIODIVERSITY (UNLAB) THROUGH MUSEUM COLLECTIONS AND FIELD-BASED RESEARCH… A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGE ON EARTH. BIODIVERSITY REQUIRES RESEARCH THAT SPANS PALEONTOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND MODERN TIMESCALES. UNLAB MENTEE RESEARCH PROJECTS ARE TAXONOMICALLY DIVERSE, COLLECTIONS-BASED, AND PURPOSEFULLY VARIED.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
  • THIS PROJECT WILL COLLECT AND ANALYZE WATER SAMPLES FROM DIFFERENT LOBES OF LAKE TININNILIK AND EXPOSED SEDIMENTS TO ADDRESS HOW ICE-MARGINAL LAKES CHANGE THE CHEMICAL AND MICROBIAL COMPOSITION AND AVAILABILITY OF NUTRIENTS FOR NEAR-SHORE AND OPEN-OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS. SARQARDLEQ FJORD, INTO WHICH LAKE TININNILIK DRAINS, IS AN IMPORTANT SOURCE OF FISH FOR LOCAL INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS, AND THIS WORK WILL AID FUTURE STUDIES SEEKING TO UNDERSTAND HOW RAPID DRAINAGE EVENTS MAY AFFECT THE MARINE FOOD WEB. THIS AWARD REFLECTS NSF'S STATUTORY MISSION AND HAS BEEN DEEMED WORTHY OF SUPPORT THROUGH EVALUATION USING THE FOUNDATION'S INTELLECTUAL MERIT AND BROADER IMPACTS REVIEW CRITERIA.
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
  • THIS AWARD WILL SUPPORT RESEARCH TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY REPRESENTS A SIGNIFICANT BURDEN IN THE UNITED STATES. WHILE THERE ARE MANY TREATMENTS AVAILABLE, THERE ARE NO PROVEN THERAPIES TO MITIGATE THE LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF THESE INJURIES. THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD TO NEW TREATMENTS. THIS WORK WILL LOOK SPECIFICALLY AT ASTROCYTES, WHICH ARE A SPECIFIC CELL TYPE IN THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD. ASTROCYTES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY CRITICAL SUPPORTIVE FUNCTIONS. ASTROCYTE DYSFUNCTION OCCURS IN CONDITIONS AS ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND CANCER.