As the federal government shutdown enters its fourth week, many public and private research projects are on hold.
While federal agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are in turmoil due to layoffs, the shutdown has also affected research projects in the private sector that rely on federal grants or grant-funded resources. That includes $135 million worth of projects in New Mexico by the Department of Energy, some of which went to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
“In the United States, about 20% of all (research and development) performed is through federal funding, either within the federal government or through grants to other institutions.” said Alessandra Zimmerman, senior manager of research and development policy for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
She wrote a report for AAAS about the effects of shutdowns on research in advance of the current stoppage, which began Oct. 1.
Current federal employees and contractors working on research deemed essential are working without receiving pay. Federal researchers classified as non-essential are essentially furloughed at the moment. And then the ripple effect from those changes goes out into other public organizations, as well as private entities.
“If you're on a (federal) contract, you may be given a stop work order, and you have to stop doing any of the work that is associated with a contract until the shutdown is over,” Zimmerman said.
Grant panels don’t meet during a shutdown, so any grant decisions are delayed, she added. Researchers also can’t get any time on federal instruments, which are any federal government data or physical resource used by researchers.
“So if you had time on a beamline or you needed to do field work on federal lands, likely you will have to cancel whatever appointment you had, and then reschedule it once the shutdown ends, which can cost you a significant amount of time in your research,” Zimmerman said.
Federal instruments refers to any federal government data or physical resource used by researchers. And so, projects drift in limbo, either due to lack of data or lack of funding. For example, Inside Higher Ed reports that University of Maryland researchers looking to fight plant diseases, including the citrus greening phenomenon that has ravaged the Florida orange industry, have put their work on hold.
The overall context of chaos can affect the quality, as well as the quantity, of research.
“So instead of being able to say ‘I'm definitely going to get a grant for the duration of this year-long experimental run,’ you're probably, with this uncertainty, saying ‘I should do something that's a little bit quicker,’” Zimmerman said. “Because I don't know how long I'm going to have this funding for, I need to have something concrete by the end of it to apply for the next grant, so I'm going to do something a little bit more iterative, a little bit less out there.”
