Miranda:

There are cuts on everything, including filling of teaching positions in the university departments and research grants.

These are considered as postponable investments/expenditures by the agencies concerned.

Researchers are wailing longer for getting job offers. But the economies are expected to recover soon; so that forecast is a good one.

Cheers

Friends: here are some links...

US crisis:

http://www.moneynews.com/Outbrain/Trump-Aftershock-American-Economy/2012/11/06/id/462985/

Europe:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/27/europe-economic-crisis-worse-caritas-report

So, we just have to live through it and smile?

What is your view?

Restrictions and limitations to the research funding and grants are main crisis for researchers.

Miranda:

There are cuts on everything, including filling of teaching positions in the university departments and research grants.

These are considered as postponable investments/expenditures by the agencies concerned.

Researchers are wailing longer for getting job offers. But the economies are expected to recover soon; so that forecast is a good one.

Cheers

Miranda: The first thing affected when there is economic problem is a reduction in funding for education and consequently research. In our university with economic crisis we faced two pronged attack. The state support reduced and also student enrolment reduced (less tuition money). This affects research very badly because research assistance to students is one of the first to be cut.

Dear friends, since the last Budget was announced, 11 measures to curb spending include:

No more conferences in hotels, use govt premises;

Reduce usage of electricity, after 5 pm, air conditioner is Off;

When I work during Saturdays, just turn on a few lights;

Reduce use of water!!

Dear Prof N et al., I don't have research grant, but still can do some research to help my students. My area of research is restricted to Learning, although I would love to do other topics. There are people who get a grant, but do the minimum.

Dear Miranda: That is true, we all continue doing with or without grants. But the problem is for the type of research I do I need equipment, consumables and conduct experiments, etc. all require money and time. With my other commitments I do not have time so has to depend on my students to help me with that part.

Dear Prof. Miranda,

The financial crises affect the researchers very deeply.

Dear Prof N, I understand. I think that's why my research area is restricted in this manner. We will encourage one another :)

Dear Prof Abedallah, Just look at this link. Our countries are about the same :)

http://www.heritage.org/index/visualize?countries=jordan|malaysia&src=country

If a crisis leads to budget cuts, then researchers face lots of problems: e.g. *reduced grants or, due to higher competition, not getting any grants, *due to reduced grants and/or reduced financing for salaries, a reduced number of vacancies (meaning not finding a job for some researchers, getting only a 1/2 position for some and forced retirement for some researchers), *reduced budget for conference trips, books and databases (e.g. forcing researchers to cover some costs themselves), *due to reducing the number of researchers, a higher workload (e.g. supervising, teaching) for those who retaine their jobs), *salary cuts. To survive, you have to become as competitive as possible, so that you can find a job in another (foreign) university if necessary. Also, it may make sense to be(come) able to work outside the academia.

Cost offsets for conferences, laboratory equipment costs etc..

And many indirect costs ....

Here in Brazil, the crisis was "faced" with a strong incentive to the auto industry, turning the streets and roads in the daily hell. This is reflected on the work!

Thanks Tiia for a practical answer. I heard that our 2014 budget is just about one third of the amount allocated to our college.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Malaysia

Dear Miranda

International organizations have decreased their support to Brazilian entities in a process defined by some as a "crisis of international cooperation."

The global economic crisis was cited as the cause of this reduction in investment.

The passing of the Brazilian federal government, another important source of funds also declined in recent years.

It is a cascade reaction that will only get worse, further hindering research in developing countries

Well, here in Greece we have some kind of crisis we did not have before. Salaries, pensions etc. have been reduced up to 50%. Unemployed is huge, young scientists go abroad to find a job. The budget cuts have influence severely the research badly. We are now in the 7th year of recession. The future is not good!

Dear Miranda and friends

As Prof Costas Drossos pointed out, the situation in Portugal and Ireland, albeit not as serious as in Greece, suffered/are suffering preety much the same. This may well lead to social unrest and serious conflicts but, as we've discussed already in another fórum, politicians have been preparing candy bars for the 2nd semester of 2014 and especially 2015 in order to win ellections - here in Portugal, the austerity "lover" gouvernment is still in charge since June 2011, our assistance program ammounted to 78.000.000.000 € (EU, IMF, ECB) and will end the next 17th May. Unemployement is around 15%, cuts are vast in salaries and pensions (in my particular case my salary now - with the highest qualifications - is lower than it was 10 years ago) and Portugal's debt is 129% of our IGP.

This being said, of course science and research, as well as Universities and overall education suffered a lot and, despite some slight/timid improvements, we are not still seing the "end of this tunnel".

And to think that this all mess started with banques in the USA lending Money for people to buy houses knowing in advance that they will not possibly be able to pay. Together with Lehman Brothers and the incapacity of the ECB and the EC to solve immediatelly the first signs of problems, chronologically Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy/France.

Perhaps this is not politically correct but Germany still has indemnizations to pay to Greece dating from WWII occupation. As far as I known, that ammount would be more than enough to solve Greece's problems.

EU is for a solidary Europe and not for increasing the distance between N rich countries and Mediterranean/Perypherical ones.

However, I am optimistic and I'm sure we all will learn from thsi devastating lesson. And yes, besides this, we in the most affected countries still managed to produce good (sometimes excellent) science.

Best regards,

JP

Thanks friends. Now I see, Brazil, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Jordan are all affected:

'Unemployed is huge, young scientists go abroad to find a job. The budget cuts have influence severely the research badly.' Which countries in Europe are the popular ones where jobs are available: Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia?

And on a very positive note:

'we in the most affected countries still managed to produce good (sometimes excellent) science'.

Thanks friends, let's get on with the work we must do. I'm busy writing up another paper, but I will be on RG during the small pockets of time.

Hi Miranda and Prof. Kamal

I would add to these countries with job opportubities the UK. To the more affected ones of course eastern Europe and the Balkans not to mention middle east - Syria of course is the most affected. Huge worries on the escalade of political (and more) turmoil in the Ukraine with possible colateral effects to Moldova.

By the way, I would appreciate very much your oppinons (Miranda, Kamal, et al.) on another discussion topic in in RG abouth ethics in animals and humans. A very interesting panel started by our friend Ramachandra Mohan.

Best regards,

JP

Thanks Joao, Three of my cousins are in UK. They went for nursing and work as nurses. But they also got degrees in life sciences through part time studies, while working.

There are some threads that I don't participate, because my main aim is to do my research. I am thankful for the understanding of my friends in this matter. Some friends tell me to concentrate on my writing, not Q and A..

Dear Prof Kamal and friends in Jordan, did you observe the economies of our countries are just about the same? :)

Dear Miranda,

since you asked for Austrian experiences: often it was said that our country is an "island of bliss"...despite heavy rumours about our home-made bank-failure(s)-by all means more/less contemporaneous and as a consequence of the whole European bank market problem(s) my country still passes for being an "island of bliss"...but IMHO the good situation and confidence certainly has been / is damaged and consequences are percepitble, at least for the coming years..."we all" (i.e. citizens, and, in second line, perhaps also bank institutions) have to pay (indirectly also by shorting expenses in any field of government(s), schools, universities etc. Ongoing medial discussion (as well as by affected people).

This might result naturally in lower employment of people in the future as well as shorting of governmental money ("concentration to / on fewer projects, research facilities etc) for special projects. Experts on several fields (Industry, Research, etc.)from NON-EU-countries have the chance to get special visas for working in our country (since prosperity will depend on such people in the duture, they say), but there are high standards for those "immigrants" to be allowed to get the permission. Last but not least: Austria is a very small country....and as part of the EC (Europ. Community) we still have to work up our duties which not always is enjoyable for us citizens. Our life standard for sure is very high (only as one parameter of being happy to live here) and lamenting at a high stage will not improve anything. Future will tell how it will go on and problems will be solved (multinational task!).

Also, like Miranda, I have to admit that I cannot follow a lot of threads in RG which I was invited to respond, due to my "other" (institutional&research) work I have to deal with.

All of you I wish a Happy Eastertime or Holidays, best regards, W.

Thanks Wolfgang. Appreciate this info about Austria. I tend to lump Austria together with Switzerland, France and Germany. I love the classical music that come from these countries, and your composers. But I don't know a lot about your economy :)

Happy Easter!

Everyone seems to agree that there is less money for research. So competition for research funding is more severe.

On the other hand, there have been very strong applicants for aceademic and research posts in academia.

Thank Huajiang. So the crisis is affecting our research and friends in research, nearly everywhere!

My situation is similar to that described by prof. Debi Saini. Cuts on everything, including filling of teaching positions in the university departments and research grants. We try to found grants by private companies which are interested to use the results of our research for commercial purposes. So we can work and survive if we are able to develop some patents or spin-off. There is a lot of competition, but the most serious problem is the lack of space for young people. Our sons or grandchildren, I think, will really pay the deleterious effects of this crisis.

Dear Prof Enzo, thanks for your views. It's very touching, very profound.

'We try to found grants by private companies which are interested to use the results of our research for commercial purposes. So we can work and survive if we are able to develop some patents or spin-off. There is a lot of competition, but the most serious problem is the lack of space for young people.... '

Thanks @ Roland. It's good that Romania has been protecting public R&I activities. Besides that Romania also 'shifted towards the Structural Funds or other EU and international funding as more stable sources of financing' for R&I...

Most common effect which might be seen could be the less funding to research sector by government.

Regards,

Nitish

Agree with Francis sir, Restrictions and limitations to the research funding and grants are main crisis for researchers.

Dear All, Lijo Francis, Patrick Low and others that you know are not able any longer to log in their RG account from yesterday. RG suspended their accounts without any reason. I don't know why, but I find this an outstanding abuse. Please help them and inform all other participants as this is a signal that things are not going in the right way in RG before it happens to you!

Regards

Gianni

Dear friends, Lijo and Patrick did tell me the reason RG gave to them. Let's have some Peace and patience. We wait. Work goes on, even on some working weekends :)

@Prof Taiar: it's a practical suggestion. But certain quarters that must tighten the belt may not like it but must just abide. A little is better than nothing...

Gianni wrote:

Dear All, Lijo Francis, Patrick Low and others that you know are not able any longer to log in their RG account from yesterday. RG suspended their accounts without any reason. I don't know why, but I find this an outstanding abuse. Please help them and inform all other participants as this is a signal that things are not going in the right way in RG before it happens to you!

All research everywhere is and/or will be affected adversely by inclement economic conditions! The effect is accentuated and/or exacerbated by and/or in developing economies!

Period!

Prof Jalal, sometimes Blessings come in disguise. Now Lijo has more time to work on his research without RG cares or commitments. Lijo wrote this 4 hours ago to us:

'Just now I have received the Cyprus Visa in my Passport.

Now I am going to prepare the PPT slides to present my papers in Cyprus EDS Conference. Since I have two papers to present.

Conference will be from 11-15 May.'

Because R&D budget is seen as an investment, likely to expand the production possibilities of a country only in the future, it may be susceptible to cuts, and because the lag between budget increases/cuts and technical breakthrough may be long, the distortion in correlation between economic crises and research breakthroughs may be amplified. However history shows that economic crises precipitated innovations that percolated into society decades after the R&D took place. For instance it has been conjectured that the world wars were a product of extended economic crises, and the world wars actually brought about an impetus for more R&D that eventually contributed to our modern conveniences. The take back lesson? Economic crises can be good for research in a very serendipitous way.

@Bernard, you are very positive.  I just came back from a trip to our Perak Matriculation college to do some writing for our Matriculation Division, Education Ministry.  Only 18 of us turned up, whereas last year, there were 32.  Last year the meetings were held in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, but this round it was in a college in an area quite famous for ecotourism.  So in this instance, our cutting costs wasn't good, wasn't serendipitous...Welcome to RG.  Let's place your pic here.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Shian_Loong_Lew