Research loses funds in recession

Many major research projects could be postponed until the economy heals itself. Research… Many major research projects could be postponed until the economy heals itself. Research projects, like finding a cure for cancer or developing new prosthetics for paraplegics, might be sidelined because of a lack of funding for universities across the country. Although Pitt still receives stable, but flat, federal funding, researchers are losing money from private foundations and industries as a result of the failing economy, said several Pitt researchers. To obtain additional money, researchers are submitting more creative proposals by collaborating and looking for new federal sources. Federal funding represents the larger share of grants given to universities. During the 2008 fiscal year, federal sources funded 86 percent of all research projects at Pitt, said Thurman Wingrove, senior administrator in the Pitt Budget and Controller Office. Grants from the National Institutes of Health comprised 78 percent of the federal funding and 67 percent of the total funding. Although the NIH still allocates billions of dollars to research universities each year, the budget began to flatten out after’ a 10-year period when it almost doubled during the 1990s and into the new millennium, said Hermi Woodward, assistant director of research for Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.’ In 1998, the NIH budget was $13.7 billion, and it grew to $27.1 billion in 2003, according to Congressional appropriations. But, by 2008 it leveled off at $28.9 billion. The cost of research, however, continues to increase. Consequently, researchers are struggling to pay for the expenses of their studies, as well as meet the increasing costs for staff, laboratory and infrastructure, said Woodward. Researchers around the country must also submit more grant proposals because their success rates have declined. Historically, nearly one out of three grants has been funded, but during the past several years, it has been closer to one out of five, said a representative in the NIH Office of Extramural Research. ‘You have to apply a lot more, and you have to get rejected a lot more,’ said Woodward. ‘It’s pretty frustrating.’ Besides receiving flat federal funding, researchers must deal with reduced foundation and industry involvement. Funding from foundations and industries comprised 8 percent of the total research funding in 2008, and grants from local and state governments, as well as smaller organizations, comprised the remaining 6 percent of the total funding, said Wingrove. While some foundations pulled out their funding in the middle of a grant year, others refused to renew it altogether, said Woodward. One foundation cut back Pitt’s project funding between 5 and 12 percent so it could avoid deficit spending, said George Klinzing, Pitt’s vice provost for research. Similarly, at Duke University, several foundations informed researchers that they were not taking proposals this year, said James Siedow, Duke’s vice provost for research. ‘You can’t operate with a yard stick and a magnifying glass these days. You need money,’ said Siedow. Like foundations, industries have reduced their involvement to save money. Because companies are very sensitive to short- and long-term economic changes, the research components within these companies are being more cautious with the amount of money that they spend, said Claude Canizares, vice president for research and associate provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Researchers at MIT, he said, saw some of their larger and long-term industrial partners make financial reductions. Several industries also withdrew contracts with researchers at Duke or reduced their funding for the next fiscal year, said Siedow. Despite these reductions, Klinzing said that he believes more research opportunities at the industry level will open up for universities in the future, because industries must stay competitive by creating new innovations. They turn to universities particularly when they eliminate their own research staff members. To make the most of their funds, researchers must find creative ways to ask for more money by cutting some of the costs without cutting the quality of the research, said Pitt researcher Anne Germain, who conducts sleep research with returning military veterans with and without post-traumatic stress disorder in the psychiatry department. Researchers are also collaborating to combine their strengths and expertise to create innovative grant proposals and gain access to other sources of funding, she said. Germain added that researchers can also obtain money from federal sources other than the NIH, because these agencies address different kinds of problems and do not have as many reductions in their budgets. For example, Germain obtained two of her grants from the Department of Defense ‘mdash; one for medical research and the other for psychological health. Despite the recent economic hardships, some Pitt researchers said that they feel optimistic about the future, because they believe that the administration is working to get research funding back on track. In fact, the NIH will receive $10.4 billion to use over the next two years through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. ‘I’m pretty confident that despite how difficult it can be ‘mdash; and it’s probably going to become harder, too ‘mdash; we’ll see new ways of doing research that haven’t been explored or developed yet since there was no need for it before,’ said Germain.