UNC's federal research funds at risk due to Congress's failure to reach compromise

After months of closed-room debate, a committee appointed by Congress to reduce the federal budget has failed — triggering automatic cuts and potentially reducing university research funding.

The committee’s failure to reach an agreement will trigger a $1.2 trillion cut to the federal budget, which includes the agencies that supply grants to researchers.

The research budget at UNC relies heavily on federal funds, which make up more than 70 percent of the University’s $788 million total. Other public universities are similarly dependent, especially on agencies like the National Institutes of Health.

Private universities are not immune to potential cuts, either. Of Duke University’s $900 million research budget, $550 million comes from the federal government.

The committee, comprised of six Republicans, who refused to levy higher taxes, and six Democrats, who balked from substantially changing entitlement programs, reached a stalemate Monday night and announced they would not be able to make a decision by the Wednesday deadline.

U.S. Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who wrote a joint letter to the supercommittee in defense of education funding, said the trigger cuts were less desirable than a committee recommendation.

“There could be another bite out of the apple for education and research,” he said. “But not all cuts are created equal, and we need to make investments for our future.”

Universities are already planning an advocacy campaign to lobby against heavy cuts to education-related agencies, said Melissa Vetterkind, the director of federal relations at Duke.

But the impact of the automatic cuts to federal research funds is still uncertain. The House Appropriations Committee will decide where to make specific cuts before they go into effect in 2013, and the 2012 elections could change that process.

“Unfortunately, we don’t know the effect that it’s going to have on research on campus,” said Karen Regan, associate vice chancellor for research for UNC. But less funding could mean heightened competition when researchers apply for grants, she said.

Research funding is already at its tightest in decades, said C. William Davis, a UNC professor of physiology and researcher at the Cystic Fibrosis and Pulmonary Diseases Research and Treatment Center — more than 90 percent of which is funded by the NIH.

When the economy is flourishing, almost a quarter of grant applicants receive money for their research, Davis said. Less than 10 percent get funding now, even less than in the Reagan recession.

“It becomes almost impossible to get a grant funded,” he said. “And you can only bang your head against a wall so many times before you give up.”

He said UNC’s success rate with grants is improving, despite the increased competition. But researchers and universities are looking to outside sources to make up the difference, Regan said.

“We’re already in discussion about trying to diversify our funding,” Regan said, adding that her office is looking at more partnerships with corporations and foundations.

Private funding can alleviate some shortages in funding, but it cannot totally replace federal grants, said Miles Lackey, director for federal affairs and UNC’s lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

It’s impossible to find enough private sources to fund scientific research, which often cannot guarantee a high or quick financial returns, Lackey said.

“That’s really where the federal government has to step in, because the payoff is so far down the road,” he said.

The automatic cuts will also affect student aid, but Congress protected Pell grants from the cuts, said Shirley Ort, director of Scholarships and Student Aid at UNC.

Depending on the appropriation process, it could cut 7.8 percent of funding for federal work study programs and supplemental education opportunity grants, she said, which would affect 87 UNC students.

“In the big picture, these would be small reductions. However, even small reductions add up to real money when they keep coming,” she said.

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