Federal research funding cuts are having “unacceptable” impacts on scientific progress, according to the vice chancellor for research at UW-Madison.
Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska spoke yesterday on a panel in Milwaukee organized by the Wisconsin Technology Council, focused on how shifting federal priorities are impacting innovation in the state.
She previously served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the first Trump administration, and was later appointed to the National Science Board under the Biden administration.
Fifty-one percent of the federal funding that goes to UW-Madison comes from the National Institutes of Health, while the next largest source is the National Science Foundation with about 17%, Grejner-Brzezinska said yesterday. Other agencies all make up shares in the single digits.
“NIH at the moment is roughly at the level of about 40% spending equivalent to the previous years,” she said yesterday, noting its approach has changed to “frontload” awards to the detriment of some research institutions.
“The priorities of the organization have changed,” she added, pointing to disruptions to research on cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and more. “This is completely unacceptable. The research is not a stop-and-go operation, and I don’t think the federal government fully understands that this is the case.”
At the same time, research spending at the National Science Foundation is at about 20% of usual levels, Grejner-Brzezinska said.
“Only consistent investment, and investment which starts from foundational research all the way to translation can sustain us as … global leaders,” she said.
Meanwhile, Sanford Health Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Jennifer Meece yesterday emphasized the disruption to community-level cancer research stemming from federal research cuts. The health system has an NIH-funded research program offering clinical trials to cancer patients, but funding cuts are jeopardizing those efforts, she said.
“That came to the forefront a lot, right, when federal cuts were coming to research,” she said. “Taking away clinical trials for our patients, for our communities … It also isn’t just about offering a clinical trial, it’s about attracting providers, physicians who want to practice medicine and research.”
Some of these concerns were echoed by Ali Abedi, vice chancellor for research and innovation at the UW-Milwaukee, who argued the country has “started to drift from our roots” by diverting resources away from the national research enterprise.
To combat the trend, he called for greater collaboration between the state’s top institutions.
“Now, collaboration is not a luxury anymore … it is a necessity, especially in Wisconsin,” he said. “If we don’t work together, we are going to be left behind.”
While panelists yesterday raised concerns about the new research support paradigm, Rob Baranowski of the Wisconsin Center for Technology Commercialization also noted funding has begun to flow through Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs, or SBIR and STTR.
While funding for the small business-focused programs lapsed late last year, it was reauthorized earlier this year and the federal government now seems to be trying to “rush a lot of money out the door” before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 1, Baranowski said.
“People are getting awards again, and it’s very promising,” he added.
