Although young researchers face particular challenges, Dr. Kuhn notes that funding remains a stress and a challenge throughout one’s career. She advises investigators to diversify their sources of funding, seeking multiple sources such as the NIH, industry and private medical foundations.
“Funding challenges happen to everyone, and obtaining funding is hard for everyone,” says Dr. Kuhn. “You really have to keep pushing yourself along and surround yourself with a lot of positive energy from colleagues so that you can maintain resilience.”
Additional Current Funding Concerns
Concerns about funding, already present, have heightened with choices made by the new political administration. On Feb. 7, the NIH announced that it planned to drastically cut payments to cover institutions’ indirect research costs, a percentage of the overall grant money. These indirect costs, the percentage of which vary by institution, are meant to go toward broad research needs, such as equipment and facilities maintenance, information technology and administrative costs.
Many research groups and universities criticized the move, arguing that it would force universities to shoulder large unbudgeted expenses, slowing research progress. In a later court filing, the NIH claimed that the total grant spending would not change under the new policy, but that grant spending would be directed more toward direct research funding as opposed to indirect costs. At present, implementation of the new policy has been temporarily blocked by a court order currently undergoing a legal appeal.
Dr. Behrens points out that reasonable people might argue that this course of action and the speed of its potential implementation is not for the best, as grant cuts to these institutions may impact scientific output. But he points out that discussions about the percentage of grants devoted to indirect costs are not new, and the best way to resource science research is a debate that shifts over time.
“Resources are not unlimited, so I think it’s right for us to discuss how much goes in what bucket. Let’s be open to having an open dialogue about the right model for enabling this research,” Dr. Behrens adds. “The only wrong answer is to stop doing it.”
Many have also voiced concerns about the administration’s choice to freeze the review of new grant applications at the NIH, although this has now been partially lifted. Another related concern applies to researchers whose work intersects with issues of racial differences, socioeconomic disparities or related factors that can influence health. In response to an executive order on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), funding for research with any applicability to this topic may not receive funding, including some previously approved projects, and a significant number of projects have been terminated. The administration has tried to pressure universities, such as Columbia, to make ideologically based policy changes in order to receive funding, which may limit their ability to provide bridge funding to individuals’ whose NIH funding status is now uncertain. Moreover, the administration has also implemented massive funding freezes and cutbacks at the NIH itself.
