> Relatedly, some federal agencies are discussing the possibility of factoring in geography when they allocate their funds, rather than basing decisions on scientific merit alone.
Sounds ironically like "DEI".
Sounds ironically like "DEI".
DEI is about rewarding and punishing people for immutable characteristics like race and sex. Where people live isn't at all immutable, and a government may rightly do stuff to encourage economic activity (like research) in this area vs. another. In fact, they do it all the time.
So it's not that the administration wants them to only look at merit and nothing else, which I thought was the the explanation, but that they think some non-merit things are okay to balance for and try to encourage diveristy, equity, and inclusion on the axis of, and others aren't.