Hello. My name is Diana Crow, I'm a science journalist, and I'm interested in writing about the effects that the budget sequester is having on the scientific community.
Shortly before the sequester went into effect, we saw a lot of pleas like this one from the heads of the DOE labs (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/the-sequester-is-going-to-devastate-us-science-research-for-decades/273925/), and I've seen a few articles like this one by the Pew Group (http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/sequester-will-force-universities-to-scale-back-scientific-research-85899465026), but the issue of how cutting federal funding affects science hasn't gotten much air time in the mainstream media.
I'm particularly interested in seeing how the budget cuts affect what sorts of projects labs choose to fund. Are side projects being postponed or shut down? Have the budget cuts made it harder for younger researchers to get projects off the ground? Are there any other effects that you've noticed and/or become concerned about?
I recently graduated with a PhD from Texas A&M University and I have had difficulty finding a postdoctoral position. Most labs are having budget cuts, very few are hiring and fewer are hiring postdoctoral staff. I am from agricultural sciences.
Hello Diana,
you asked about USA I think, maybe this should be known by the readers of your question at Researchgate.
Generally I think cut in money for research results in any country (I am from germany) to the same problems. One is at Archana wrote (no new positions), part-time contracts will not be extended (problem in my case) etc. Another problem is, that cuts results in no new methods. New equipment which is often really expensive can't buy and so a country is fast not up to date. For example Next-Generation-Sequencing. Many people want to do that because this will be the future in molecular genetic but many people don't have the money for such projects.
In europe there was a plan to cut money for research also some month ago. Then a initiative make this published and more then 150.000 researchers (2500 from USA) sign this petition, also 44 Nobel prize winners, infos about this you find here: http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu/ maybe this is interesting for your article.
I try to support a small high-tech business on a university campus in the US, but it seems the NIH grant this year is exactly at the border of getting funded - but would have clearly been funded last year... I guess it is very similar with NSF grants. At the end, this may give research the chance to focus more on the very best grants (to see it positively). But at the end, I am more a scientist and prefer not to think as the mainstream of successful (medical) scientists in Germany often just reproducing 10 y.o. stuff from research. It is usually very hard to stay in science, no matter how much money a country gives - and most countries I know prefer the rapid career of professors or influencial peoples kids due to the good networks rather than selecting for the best brains. But maybe networks are so much more important than creative research ideas...
Hello Diana, Sequestration has brought furlough to our unit. Myself and other colleagues will not work every Fridays and that leaves a big hole on program readiness. Natural tendencies drift our preparations to cover some of the activities that could have been done on those Fridays even though that would not attract a commensurate pay. This situation is inconceivable and I hope it can be resolve without further harm by the next fiscal year.
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