PROFESSION NOTES

Private Research Funding Falters; Tomorrow's Technologies; Adopt an Ethical Attitude in the Lab Erica P. Johnson FUNDING FORUM | Private Research Funding Falters Awards by charitable foundations are expected to decline for the first time in twenty years, and the life science community has already experienced the pain. Funding will at best remain flat, and most likely decrease in 2003, says Steven Lawrence, director of research for the Foundation Center in New York City. Declining endowment values reflect receding returns in the stock market, where most charities invest their endowments. "A few years ago, our endowment peaked at $13 billion (US)," says Avis Meehan, vice president for communications and public affairs at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Now it's at $10 billion." HHMI has announced laboratory budget cuts of as much as 20% over the next two years. "Even if you're not losing money, you're continuing to spend it, so your endowment declines," Meehan says. HHMI is not alone. With more than 75% of its endowment tied to Hewlett-Packard and Agilent stocks, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation's total grants budget has declined by 56% over the past two years, from $451 million in 2001 down to $200 million in 2003. The Los Altos, Calif., foundation plans less drastic cuts in fellowships for young science and engineering professors than cuts being made overall for the organization. "This is a program which has been identified as core to the goals of the foundation, and will be staying front and center as one of our key components of giving," says Chris DeCardy, director of communications for the Packard Foundation. Gavril Pasternack, attending neurologist of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, says that because funds get tied up years ahead of time, money can become tight during times of financial hardship. "It's easy to maintain funding when the budget is growing, but once it stabilizes, funding becomes more difficult because the funds are already obligated." To avoid crises, charities plan their spending over time. "Most foundations don't take this year's valuation as to what they can spend, by taking a moving average from previous years," says Gary Steinberg, chief investment officer of the Wellcome Trust in England, "We have suffered also, but this has been somewhat cushioned by taking a moving average of our asset base to determine how much we're going to spend." The decline in private research funding follows a period of unprecedented growth: Funding by more than 56,000 US foundations increased by 5%, from $27.6 billion in 2000 to $29 billion in 2001, after an 18.2% increase in 2001, and a 20.5% increase during the previous year, according to the Foundation Center. "Despite an expected decline in foundation giving in 2003, overall funding by foundations will continue to be double what it was in the mid-90s," Lawrence says. --Hal Cohen TRAINING @ | Tomorrow's Technologies WHAT: Second O'Reilly Bioinformatics Technology Conference WHERE: Westin Horton Plaza, San Diego WHY: Helps biologists learn new computer skills ADVANTAGES: Tutorials explore introductory and advanced topics in bioinformatics WHEN: Feb. 3-6, 2003 DEADLINE: No deadline COST: $1,175 for conference, $1,600 for conference plus 1 day of tutorials URL: conferences.oreilly.com/ --Hal Cohen Bette-Jane Crigger TIP TROVE | Adopt an Ethical Attitude in the Lab Science is first and foremost about generating knowledge. To work in ways that serve this goal requires one to pay attention to matters of discipline, integrity, and respect. Part of it is recognizing that the living entity and the tissues you're working with are essential to your career: Be nice to them.... It's a matter of discipline, making sure that your data are properly recorded; not cutting corners; not fudging lab notebooks; remembering that the most important information you get is negative data.... You ought to really live for those negative results and the challenges they offer. --Bette-Jane Crigger Editor, Institutional Review Board: Ethics & Human Research The Hastings Center Garrison, New York

PROFESSION NOTES

Private Research Funding Falters; Tomorrow's Technologies; Adopt an Ethical Attitude in the Lab

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