Ailing economic conditions over the past year have taken their toll on research at Hopkins, leaving the projects of established professors and those looking for their first big break in a state of flux.
The stunning effects brought on by the recent financial crisis and talks of further economic problems will likely create an even more detrimental situation.
Federal agencies that fund science research at universities have less money to lend out to universities, and researchers have found themselves waiting longer for grant approvals that were once near-guarantees.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) are two of the main federal suppliers of grant money. Recently, researchers have had increasing difficulty securing initial grants and getting supplementary funding from both organizations.
The Krieger Mind/ Brain Institute is one of many research groups affiliated with Hopkins. Steven Hsiao, a neuroscience professor and a lab head, spoke about how researchers feel squeezed and even discouraged by the current status of research grants.
"NIH funding has gotten tighter over the past couple years - NSF funding is even harder to secure," he said.
NIH provides money to researchers in the medical sciences, and is the primary source of funding for the Mind/Brain Institute.
"The NIH actually doubled its budget five years ago, but there has been no increase since; many more grants are being applied for, with less money to go around, and a lot of grants can't be approved or renewed."
Hsiao emphasized the importance of NIH in supplying labs with funding.
"We get most of our money from NIH. In the past, under better conditions, researchers might expect to get a grant approved on the first, maybe the second try, after these proposal have undergone a screening process. Now, even the best grants are frequently being passed over twice."
Each rejection adds several months or even years to put together a revised proposal, and the crunch imposed by hard economic times has heightened the standards for approving grants - with more limited funds, the federal government has significantly raised the bar for research grants, turning away many proposals that would have been readily approved only a couple years ago.
During more favorable economic times, it was not uncommon for about the top 20 percent of rated grants to be approved - the number has dropped to 10 percent, or even lower now, according to Hsiao.
Hsiao has also noticed that researchers with well-established projects approved years ago have been running out of funding and have been forced to rely on stopgap bridge funding while waiting for a formal grant renewal.
"The NIH likes to support first-time applicants and also innovative grants, and as the standards for these have necessarily increased, established researchers have to wait much longer for grant renewals," he said. "This bridge funding can only go so far, however, before a grant renewal becomes absolutely necessary, and many projects teeter on the brink of collapse during these tense waiting periods."
Paula Burger, Hopkins's vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Education, confirmed that the University is keeping a close watch over research funding against the backdrop of this economic downturn. "We, particularly the deans of research for [the respective schools], are monitoring the status of research grant activity, given the uncertainty of these difficult times."
Hopkins is one of the top research universities in the country and, in comparison to many other institutions, has been able to somewhat mollify the negative consequences of the economic downturn, according to Dr. Marc Donohue, the associate dean for Research in the Whiting School of Engineering.
According to Donohue, the Whiting School has seen relatively modest growth in funding for the last several years from most federal agencies, while national NIH funding has doubled over a five-year period. Only recently has it begun to decline in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars.
"I think that the Whiting School has been fortunate in being able to maintain our funding levels from some agencies and grow it from others in a time when the funding nationally for these agencies has been declining or flat. I attribute this to the very high caliber of our faculty and their entrepreneurial spirit," Donohue said.
Universities help pick up the slack and fund additional research during a troubling economic period. An institution such as Hopkins, with its strong research background and a robust endowment, has an advantage that many schools lack.
Hsiao was especially concerned with how the economy was affecting newly minted researchers just now entering their professional fields. Just as recent college and professional school grads are entering a depressing job market, novice researchers are beginning their careers in a less-than-favorable environment.
"This process is cyclical, but it's unfortunate for the new generation of people just getting into research now. It can be quite discouraging for these new scientists. The most unfortunate effect [of all this] is that a lot of people simply will have to drop out [of the research fields], and a lot of research will be cut," Hsaio said.
Though the direct effects of a possible recession and the financial crisis may not be clear for some time, it is highly likely that Hopkins's research labs will have a harder time acquiring funding in the months ahead.
