Living and Breathing Science: Research in a time of austerity

These are trying times for academic scientists across this country. NIH grant success rates reached an all time low in 2011. With prospects of obtaining new funding being poor, many lab directors are struggling to sustain their research laboratories. Here are few approaches that might help. In addition to dedicating energies to applying for new grant funding, investigators need to work diligently to stretch the limited funds that are available. Place your fellows and students on a budget. This will force them to be frugal and better justify their expenditures. Require that graduate students and fellows apply for fellowships and travel awards. Perform an inventory of all of the reagents in your lab. You may find that you already have reagents you are about to purchase. Post inventories and require that they be maintained. Reach out to other scientists to freely provide reagents such as antibodies, cells lines and constructs. Take some time to work with sales representatives to get the best pricing on consumables. Make sure experiments are properly designed and controlled to avoid unneeded redos. Go micro and scale down reactions volumes to save reagent and supply costs. Get your animal housing costs under control. Reduce unnecessary drains on your resources by submitting mouse lines to the MMRCC Program at Jax for cryopreservation and distribution. Consider sharing effort/salary of your technician with another PI. Twenty five percent effort of your experienced technician may be worth more in productivity to another PI than what might be obtained through them paying 100% of the salary of an inexperienced technician.

Next, explore new avenues for funding. Since your experience is a valuable asset, let others who are writing grant applications know that you are interested in collaborating and that you, your team and resources can bring value to their program. Don't miss out on grant opportunities that could fund your research. Subscribe to receive notifications of new grant opportunities from COS or Grants.gov. If you have a scored, but unfunded grant application, consider submitting it to the HealthResearchFunding.org, a database that serves as a clearinghouse for unfunded research proposals.