Science is a crazy business.
What a strange business this is: We stay in school forever. We have to battle the system with only a one in eight or one in ten chance of getting funded. We give up making a living until our forties. And we do it because we want to help the world. What kind of crazy person would go for that?Nancy Andrews, M.D., Ph.D.
Dean, Duke University Medical School
Via Orac, I learned of this new lobbying effort to increase NIH funding. Brokenpipeline.org argues that a generation of researchers will be lost if we don't fix the NIH. They're right.
Currently, universities aren't hiring new researchers. They're poaching researchers from other universities. So folks in a position like me, where they're finishing a post-doc, and starting to look for work, are in the position that there are no new jobs available. It's a crazy time. Read more here.
3 comments:
Im glad I can float in school for another 4, 5 years... But Im glad Im not a first year. Used to be that qualifying exams were the weeding-out step. It appears that with my class its going to be 'who can find a lab with funding'. Cant find a lab that can pay for your education? Buh bye.
This funding crisis is going to bite us in the ass for decades...
Yep. And when I started grad school, it was all daisies and rainbows. The NIH was just starting on its path to doubling the budget, and everything looked grand.
By the time you come up, it'll all be sorted out.
Or Huckabee will be president*, and we will all be screwed.
* I still fear it can happen
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