The "Sequester"

[RandiZ]

Is anyone else flipping out about possible spending cuts to research if the folks in DC don't get their act together and this so-called sequester goes through? I heard that NIH and NSF have already sent out letters saying that the cuts go through on March 1st they'll have to suspend some grants.

[queenleblanc]

NIH grants will definitely be affected.  My mother works in a research division at Duke and they are preparing for cuts.  Probably in the neighborhood of 20%. 

[pears]

to heck with grants, i'll consider myself lucky if i can find a job this summer just to start covering tuition loans. oof. gee whiz, i'm sure glad my government will protect its ability to give other groups military-grade weaponry to do its dirty work, but couldn't give less of a hoot about its academics..

[SensLu]

yea I got the NSF email today, apparantly there will be approximately 1000 fewer grants awarded. I wonder how this effects the NSF GRFP.

[abeilles]

just interviewed with someone who has recently been awarded a DOD grant, but hasn't received any of the money yet due to the sequester...

[jdkhi37]

Does any know if/how FLAS grants will be impacted? Will it mean a longer wait to know whether we've received them? Are they in danger of being cut or greatly reduced?

[Deadmeat]

I'm not too worried because I got multiple years of funding regardless of my adviser  if they lose funding the department pays me... even in the summer. Though I feel bad for my current MS adviser, we have two great grants for over 1.3 million in funding that scored well from NIH, but they are being slashed about 8% in funding with this he told me :-(

 

I can see this effecting NSF/NIH/DOE funds more than DOD projects, that DOD money bucket is freakin huge. 

[1FJG]

even though I got my funding, I'd still say "we are FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU". that basically means predoc and postdoc fellowships now will be even more competitive. i feel bad for international students in the U.S. who wanna apply fellowships.

 

and the effect of this sequester probably won't end until the next decade, meaning that the path to academia is almost as challenging as mass produce solar panel to developing / developed countries and have everyone installs it.

[InquilineKea]

Is this also going to make grad school admissions more competitive, because professors are going to have more funding issues due to this?

[queenleblanc]

What's with the down-vote on obsidian?  Grammar aside, I can't find anything wrong.  

[guttata]

Everything I've heard from people with more NSF experience than I've got is that they try to protect things like the GRFP and DDIG. I suppose they cost comparatively little and have high, measurable returns, and historically they're a safe investment.

[Inyo]

I don't fully understand the actual law, but it's my understanding from listening to lots of NPR (I have a long commute...) that the law as written prevents agencies from moving a lot of money around to minimize the effects. That was written into the law to make the cuts as "stupid" as possible so that they'd never happen... but here we are now.

 

I think it's hard to predict exactly how the GRFP will be effected. Even if the NSF wants to protect it, they may not be able to.

[iowaguy]

Is this also going to make grad school admissions more competitive, because professors are going to have more funding issues due to this?

 

I think this very well could be the case.  I specifically asked a POI at a school I've been accepted at (haven't decided whether to attend there or not) how this would affect the RA that I've been offered.  Prof seemed a little nervous, the RA research is state-funded but as we all know, federal cuts (or even the perception of future federal cuts) can trickle down to states and affect state budgets...

 

Anyway, yes, IMHO admissions will be more competitive in the future.  And possibly fewer federally-funded opportunities for post-docs...

[RandiZ]

Some articles written on the subject:

http://www.cgsnet.org/effects-sequestration-and-graduate-education

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/sequestering-science-research/273648/

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/511886/rd-faces-its-own-fiscal-cliff/

 

There are a bunch of other articles put out by individual universities, too.

[Pez]

God that's depressing...

[iowaguy]

Well, if indeed universities are churning out too many PhD students, might this thin the herd a bit? (less $ for RA's so fewer PhD students admitted to the program, fewer NSF fellowships, etc)  Which would actually be good for us in the long term, no?  i.e. fewer people graduating with PhD's means less competition for professorships...

Edited March 5, 2013 by iowaguy

[pears]

What's with the down-vote on obsidian?  Grammar aside, I can't find anything wrong.  

 

+1. upvoted for the name (lithics nerd ahoy!) and location. 

 

iowaguy: it's all good and fine for (qualified, motivated, etc.) people who intend to pursue academia sooner rather than later, but for those of us who intend to continue "pounding the ground," it's rough. i'm taking my sweet time moving towards a PhD, but i really hope the funding climate will be better by the time i'm applying to grad schools again. i don't want to get weeded out just because i don't intend to dip my toes in the academic waters until i'm too old or too burnt out to be in the field 24/7. that said, i have an extremely tenuous grasp on how PhD programs look at applications and how they weight applicants' career goals, so maybe i'll be okay, too!

[synorg]

fwiw: the NDSEG facebook page replied to someone's comment in mid february stating that the office plans to give out 200 awards this year. who knows if they will stick to this over the next few years, but it appears that this year's awards will not be affected by the sequester.

[rwarzo01]

Is the sequester expected to hit current fellows at all? Or are the agencies only going to reduce the number of overall fellowships? I'm currently an EPA STAR Fellow and just received a not about the sequester from the EPA today, which was deliberately vague but indicated that current fellows may take some sort of hit. Anyone heard anything about the effects to current fellows?

[mpheels]

Is the sequester expected to hit current fellows at all? Or are the agencies only going to reduce the number of overall fellowships? I'm currently an EPA STAR Fellow and just received a not about the sequester from the EPA today, which was deliberately vague but indicated that current fellows may take some sort of hit. Anyone heard anything about the effects to current fellows?

As far as I can tell, it will hit current fellows. Federal agencies are required to apply the budget cut equally across all of their accounts and obligations, so they can't impose heavy cost saving measures in one area to spare another. We just received year two of funding for an NCI grant, and it was cut by 10% (plus they are only distributing 6 months of funds at a time). I assume the same is going to happen with training grants and fellowships - they can cut the budget for future awards by funding fewer people, but they also have to cut funding to awards that have already been granted.

 

Edited to add - So far, the NCI really doesn't care how we handle the reduced budget on our end. We can load the budget cut in one area to spare others, or we can spread it out. I assume universities can do the same for graduate funding - reduce everyone by a small amount, or maintain funding for current students by reducing funding for incoming students.

Edited March 6, 2013 by mpheels

[franks98]

I'm cross-posting this from the NSF GRFP thread:

 

For the GRFP, I think they will just hold funding at last year's level (i.e. 30k/yr, 10.5k institutional support).  The nsfgrfp.org website doesn't have the info about the stipend and support increase for FY13 listed anymore, so my guess is that they'll keep the number of awards the same and decrease the award amount.  That sucks, but I suppose it's better than thinking that you maybe could have gotten an award if only damn politicians didn't screw everything up.  

[franks98]

^^^ nevermind.  Apparently it's on the homepage; the about page shows last year's numbers. 

[onthebrink]

Hard (and scary) to make decisions/plans in this kind of environment:  Here's a link to another article "Budget Crisis Hurts University Research Programs" and some info on sequestration effects at the University of California: 

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/09/budget-crisis_n_2843174.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share

 

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/documents/sequestration_fact_sheet_022613_final.pdf

 

sigh...

[iowaguy]

One of my POI's said the sequester is hampering his ability to offer me RA funding (I have not been accepted yet to that program).  He's waiting to hear back on funding from a federal grant source, which according to him is in a holding pattern and apparently not committing funds right now with the sequester...

[abeilles]

One of my POI's said the sequester is hampering his ability to offer me RA funding (I have not been accepted yet to that program).  He's waiting to hear back on funding from a federal grant source, which according to him is in a holding pattern and apparently not committing funds right now with the sequester...

 

I've been accepted to a program with a POI going through the same thing