As federal health grants have dwindled over the past decade, universities and institutions—including those in Kentucky—have been forced to compete for ongoing or new research money.An analysis by NPR this week found that throughout the U.S. "about 16 percent of scientists with sustaining (known as 'R01') grants in 2012 lost them the following year." And as cuts have become a reality, some at Kentucky's two major research universities worry that both the momentum of and interest in research studies could be in jeopardy. From NPR:
A couple of decades ago, U of L crafted a plan that would increase its research, Pierce said. The university began to hire more people and build more laboratories.“We’ve had to cut those plans back. There’s just no way to sustain the growth that we hoped for,” he said, noting U of L has still been on a strong trajectory regarding its ability to research.But that still doesn't put Pierce at ease.He said the two biggest worries are losing research momentum and losing young researchers who might turn to other fields. And Pierce said “without the grants we wouldn’t be able to do our research.And other universities are affected, too.About an hour away, Lou Hersh at the University of Kentucky has been researching Alzheimer’s disease. He said although there has been a dip in NIH grant funding, UK has “held its own,” when considering data that show larger dips in other schools.
“We’ve been fortunate at UK in that we haven’t really gone down too much at all,” Hersh said.But he acknowledged that it's been a tougher climate in recent years, with more grants being requested from limited funds."So, of course the more grant applications that go in, the more competitive grants become," he said.Hersh said UK has created a system where faculty can mentor each other to help with the grant applications, and he believes that those efforts can help maintain a comparable level of funding.
