Poll Comments for May 2004

Are projected government funding cuts to R&D programs affecting
your research initiatives?

1. As an administrator at a community college, the federal science research
budget changes that are the subject of this poll, have minimal to no
impact at my institution. However, I am also a former research scientist
w publications and I do follow generaal scientific activities in multiple
disciplines. Therefore, I am concerned about the redirection of funds that
appears to me to be shortsighted and without adequate consideration given
to the multiple issues and large scope considerations facing this nation.

2. As a relatively young scientist in ecology trying to develop a research
program, the low level of grant support in the US at present may lead me
out of a career in science. NSF funds less than 10% of the proposals they
receive in the programs to which I apply. Other agencies (e.g. NASA, DOE,
USDA) are often funding less than 20% of the proposals they receive. If
these trends continue, I fear that more young scientists (and aspiring
scientists) will choose different career paths as has happened in other
countries where research dollars have dwindled in particular areas of
research.

3. Given that the President's budget rarely represents actual appropriation
of funding by the Congress, I would prefer to see the resources of AAAS
focused on the appropriations bills than the President's budget. This
especially true of the journalistic resources currently devoted to
dissection of the President's budget.

4. This poll is an extremely unscientific one, in that you are asking people
to extrapolate and form an opinion on something they have NO WAY of
knowing for sure. How can they know whether it will have a negative
effect on them?
The media and most of academia is so liberal and so democratic that they
insist on negative comments about anything having to do with the present
administration even if it has no basis in fact. Sometimes I am ashamed to
be a scientist.

5. The tax cuts have reduced federal income to the point that government
resources are inadequate to meet substantial legitimate needs including
those of research.

6. This is an extremely important debate and one that I hope will make the
current administration realize the impact that their plan has had on
research, particularly in biomedical sciences.
I recently had an NIH R01 scored just shy of funding. The score was good
enough that it would have been funded if the same exact grant were
submitted just two years sooner. I am obviously not alone, but my
research in mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis is now on hold and may
even end because of the lack of funding to the NIH.

7. We have often joked about the logic of pressmen asking a bereaved person
how they feel now that their loved one is dead. This federal budget
question elicits very similar feelings. Except that in this case there may
be no connection between the budget cut and my "research initiatives". The
greatest bottleneck to my research initiatives coming through to fruition
is not so much the absolute amount of federal funding, but getting my
grant applications through the peer review process. While federal funding
for NIH has more than doubled in the last six years, that did not
necessarily translate to a doubling of funding for my laboratory.

8. Seems to me that if we (as a nation)just vote this present administration
out of office this fall, it would represent a major contribution toward
not only getting scientific research funding back on track, but also
getting back on track several other very important issues/matters that
affect the lives of all Americans, and peoples of other countries
world-wide.