N.C. State researchers and students may see less funds when applying for federal grants or receiving financial aid because of the automatic federal budget cuts known as the sequestration.
According to the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, sequestration will affect government spending and research funding throughout the entire UNC system, which is expected to be at least $106 million this year. The APLU is an advocacy organization that represents the views of N.C. State and the other member institutions in Washington and is lobbying on behalf of the Universities’ interests.
The sequestration cuts were put into effect on March 1, when lawmakers failed to come to a consensus on spending policy in Washington. These hawkish cuts instituted by lawmakers’ policy may have the potential to harm students and researchers.
Terri Lomax, the vice chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development, said the cuts are visible and have impacted areas like N.C. State’s Water Research Institute, which has only received 60 percent of its normal funding this year because of the sequester. Agencies such as the National Institutes of Health have notified the University that there will be 1,000 fewer grants this year.
As a result, University officials are starting to search for other sources of funding.
“We have a lot of new industry friendly policies that will hopefully increase research funding for our faculty,” Lomax said.
The cuts will continue to take effect over a decade if lawmakers in Washington cannot come up with a long-term deficit reduction plan that has bipartisan support.
Jeff Lieberson, APLU’s vice president of Public Affairs, said the U.S. has been a global leader in innovation for decades, but other countries like China are increasing their investments in research and education while U.S. is losing its competitive advantage, resulting in a slowing engine of economic growth in the United States.
The APLU has partnered with other organizations such as the Association of American Universities and The Science Coalition to create a project called ScienceWorksForU.S.
ScienceWorksForU.S. is trying to push a message to Washington lawmakers that federally funded university-based research has a tremendous impact on the nation and helps sustain and grow its economy.
“The message that we are trying to get to Washington is that investments in research and higher education are critical to economic growth and investing in them will actually create jobs and help reduce the deficit, but cutting funding will have the opposite impact,” Lieberson said. “By cutting funding you’re eliminating the creation of the next big thing and innovating projects. You’re also denying the ability for some students to attend school.”
The APLU has also collaborated with the Task Force on American Innovation by addressing a letter to President Obama and other government officials that stresses the importance of federal research funds.
The letter calls for the Federal government to cease the cuts claiming that the cuts would impede important programs the help economic growth and reminds the intended audience of successful government funded projects. The Task Force states in the letter “scientific research drives innovation, productivity, job creation, and growth. Technological advances such as the laser, the Internet and the Web, GPS, and the large-scale integrated circuit had their origins in long-term research.”
Sequestration was never intended to go into effect, but it has because of the lack of government compromise, and it is here to stay unless an alternate deficit reduction plan is made that receives the support of Washington officials.
