After Boulder Reporting Lab published an exclusive Feb. 12 report on new policies at the National Institute of Standards and Technology that would limit many international researchers to three years at the lab, other journalists contacted the federal lab with questions. In response, NIST’s public affairs office issued its first statement. The agency said the policy is meant to safeguard U.S. science but did not address scientists’ concerns about its impact.
Boulder hosts one of the institute’s two main campuses, and the policy could have significant implications for the city’s research economy. Scientists previously told Boulder Reporting Lab the limits could force graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to leave mid-project, potentially disrupting federally funded work and weakening labs whose research contributes to fields ranging from forensics to AI to construction.
Internal sources said the new policy “basically bans all foreign national grad students, because doing a science Ph.D. takes five to seven years,” and will likely affect hundreds of international scientists. No one but high-level leadership received written notice of the changes, including those within NIST charged with hiring graduate students, according to internal sources.
One scientist within NIST said it felt “purposefully nebulous,” because there had been no internal communication about the policies. Scientists who spoke to Boulder Reporting Lab said they believed that was an intentional decision meant to make the changes harder to oppose.
“If it’s written down, then people can point to it and say, ‘that’s not okay,’” another said. “But if it’s all decentralized, trickling down, then it’s hard to fight.”
On Feb. 17, NIST issued the following statement to journalists, its first public acknowledgment of the new policies:
“A Feb. 12, 2026, article in the Boulder Reporting Lab refers to development of a proposed update to decision-making criteria for safeguarding U.S. science at NIST. The update has not been finalized.
“The criteria under development are intended to ensure that NIST’s foreign national associate program is supporting NIST’s mission needs, adding value to the organization and minimizing risk to the nation. They align with Presidential Memorandum on United States Government-Supported and Development National Security Policy and NIST’s Safeguarding International Science: A Research Security Framework, first published in 2023.”
While the changes have not been published, sources told Boulder Reporting Lab they are already in effect. Some international scientists’ agreements with NIST are being revised, and some researchers have been told to find new labs, the sources said.
The documents referenced in the statement are a 2021 presidential memorandum issued at the end of Trump’s first term addressing national security in research and development, and an internal NIST framework on research security and international science, which was updated in 2025 with a “Research Security Risk Determination Matrix.”
The new matrix states that research or affiliations with universities or military entities from “foreign countries of concern” — China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria — are considered “high risk indicators,” as are “substantial malign foreign publications.”
While scientists within NIST say some international researchers have been at the lab for 10 years or more, the statement from NIST concludes by implying the program is intended only for short-term partnerships.
“The intent of NIST’s foreign national associate program is for short-term collaborations in alignment with the NIST mission,” it reads.
NIST plays a central role in U.S. research, advancing “measurement science,” including quantum science and the maintenance of the world’s most accurate clock, which supports many modern technologies.
Federal officials and scientists have also warned of a growing workforce shortage in quantum science and related fields. In recent congressional testimony, NIST leaders said the United States does not currently have enough domestic or international talent to fill projected jobs, raising questions about how new limits on international researchers could affect the country’s research capacity.