Research universities in the state, including Colorado State University, are facing the possibility of fewer grants if the federal budget cuts known as sequestration take effect this Friday.
Bill Farland, Senior Vice President for Research at CSU, says some programs that are currently underway would have to be cut back, while new programs slated to start this year would be postponed.
"We know our major funding agencies, like the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Defense, will all be taking hits," says Farland."So the issue of the impact in the longer term is what we’ll be looking at. The competition will just be that much tougher, with fewer grants being funded."
Farland says having fewer grants could impact the university’s ability to keep people in research jobs. He notes though that CSU has been very successful at fundraising, despite the economic downturn and past cuts in federal funding. In September 2012 the university set a new record for research spending.
Colorado’s 24 federal research labs are also expecting to take a hit if the budget cuts take effect, something Farland says would result in furloughs in the near future, and possible cutbacks of programs in the long term. The uncertainty even prompted a national consortium of federal technology labs to cancel its 2013 meeting, scheduled for April in Westminster, Colo.
You can read more in the Northern Colorado Business Report.
