Department of Energy ends PIER diversity plan requirement for all science grant applicants

The Department of Energy's Office of Science announced it was immediately ending its Promoting Inclusive and Equitable Research plan requirement, which had required grant applicants to describe how their proposed projects would broaden participation in science. The requirement had been designed to encourage research teams to recruit from underrepresented institutions and build mentoring pipelines. DOE's decision came within one week of Executive Order 14151, making it one of the fastest agency responses to the anti-DEI order. Principal investigators with pending grant applications immediately faced questions about whether language they had already submitted could disqualify them. Grant reviewers were instructed to disregard PIER plans when scoring proposals. The change applied retroactively to proposals already under review for the fiscal year 2025 funding cycle, disrupting planning at universities that had structured their research teams around the inclusion requirements.