Weblog of Quotes and Rants

Recently NPR has been running a series of articles on lack of funding in biomedical science.  They are all quite interesting, if a bit depressing for someone currently in the field.

I've gathered a couple of the more interesting quotes and phrases I've come across in them.

His NIH grant ran out in 2012 and he hasn't been able to get it renewed.

"We're in survival mode right now," he says.

"The only people who can survive in this environment are people who are absolutely passionate about what they're doing and have the self-confidence and competitiveness to just go back again and again and just persistently apply for funding"

--Robert Waterland, associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine 

...he could only get funding to do very predictable, unexciting research. When money gets tight, often only the most risk-averse ideas get funded

he has written a blizzard of grant proposals

According to a research paper published earlier this year, corner-cutting turned out to be the rule, rather than the exception ... because there is little incentive for scientists to take the time to go back and verify results from other labs. "You want to be the first one to show something," he says — not the one to verify or dispute a finding, "because you won't get a big prize for that."

--Stefano Bertuzzi, the executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology

 In the United States, more than 40,000 temporary employees known as postdoctoral research fellows are doing science at a bargain price. And most postdocs are being trained for jobs that don't actually exist. ... The entire system is built around the false idea that all these scientists-in-training are headed to university professorships.

The worst part: The boss spends a huge amount of time in his office writing grants because money is so tight these days even many top-flight ideas don't make the cut. Nearly 90 percent of grant proposals get rejected.