Funding

In the world of science funding is everything. Science is a very expensive endeavor and the majority of labs simply cannot function without government funding. Thanks to our current national budget crisis, National Institute of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF), are being forced to dramatically cut the number of labs they fund as well as the amount of money they can award.

The effects of this can be seen in many labs here at UC Berkeley. I know of at least 4 labs that have come up for grant renewal that have not received an extension of their major grant in the past year. This is scary for both the university, faculty and graduate students who all depend on this money to operate on a daily basis. Add this on top of the state budget crisis and you might start to understand why this is such a big deal.

Unfortunately, our lab is also up for the grant renewal process, the deadline for filing being June 1st. Needless to say we are all a little stressed. There is a push to get papers ready for publishing so that they are "in press" by the filing deadline as well a need for each grad student/post doc to make a significant contribution to the grant with their current projects. In comparison to other labs, our lab is small and our research not exactly cutting-edge (we don't have any direct links to cancer or other disease models) and is generally classified as "basic science research." Sure, we do our best to market our research-we certainly use the organ development bit as well as the fact that the signalling mechanisms that we learn in the salivary gland are often universal. But overall, we are at a slight disadvantage in competing for grants.

From what I understand, when one applies for a grant, the grant proposal is ranked in comparison with other grants (either new or up for renewal). Typically, grants in the top 20th percentile are funded. This year, depending on who you talk to, it is only the top 12-16th percentile that is getting funded- a big difference. This is scary for our lab, as we were in the top 15th percentile last time we were up for grant renewal-which would be borderline for an award in the best case scenario.

Not getting funded isn't the end of the world, as emergency funding from the department will kick in and there are always other grants that can be applied for. For example, my salary/stipend is guaranteed by the department, so I know I'll still receive a paycheck even if we don't get our grant renewed. However, the economic impact on the lab would likely be severe and could effect what experiments I am able to do. A scary thought when one is trying to graduate!

I know all I can do is to keep working hard on my project. I will try to get as much data for the grant as possible and keep my fingers crossed like everyone else.