The PSF Software Foundation submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation in January 2025 as part of the Open Source Ecosystem Security/Security/Privacy project to address structural vulnerabilities in Python and PyPI. This is also the first time that the PSF Software Foundation has applied for funding from the US government. After discussion, the team believes that the foundation is very consistent with the requirements of the National Science Foundation, so if this proposal is accepted and funded, it will bring great benefits to the Python community.
After months of hard work, the proposal was approved and successfully secured $1.5 million in funding, which was great news until the PSF Foundation learned that the financial grant from the U.S. government would still require agreement to terms and conditions, and the team became concerned.
Specifically the relevant terms and conditions include:
No projects will be conducted during the life of the financial grant that violate U.S. federal anti-discrimination laws, advance or promote DEI or discriminatory equality ideologies. If the above agreement is violated, the National Science Foundation will have the right to withdraw funds that have been previously approved and paid.
The PSF Software Foundation believes that this will result in the recovery of money that has been spent, which is a huge and unlimited financial risk. For the Foundation, diversity, equity and inclusion are core values and agreeing to the above conditions may betray the mission of the Foundation and the community.
In the end, the PSF Software Foundation decided to give up this financial aid. However, after giving up the financial aid, the PSF Software Foundation's own financial problems also needed to be solved urgently. Due to inflation, reduced sponsorship, economic pressure in the technology industry, and various uncertainties and conflicts, the PSF Software Foundation now needs financial support more than ever.
Therefore, the foundation also calls on everyone to donate support, which will help the foundation to operate stably and continue to work on open source software and Python projects.
via PSF