The linkurl:Santa Fe Institute;http://www.santafe.edu/ (SFI), a 24-year-old collaborative research center in New Mexico, is tightening its belt in anticipation of continued market instability and a curtailment in donations to support its work. Physicist and SFI director linkurl:Geoffrey West;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/52865/ told __The Scientist__ that, while the budget of the institute is in no immediate danger of evaporating, administrators there thought it prudent to freeze all linkurl:staff;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/54988/ salaries, suspend planned renovations to a central conference room, and renegotiate the fees paid to visiting scientists, workshop attendees, and speakers. "We decided we should do a preemptive strike and brace ourselves for potentially bad news," linkurl:West;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53846/ said. "This situation with the bottom falling out of the market really might have a potentially big impact on us." The non-profit linkurl:Santa Fe Institute;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/12263/ is particularly vulnerable to a sagging economy, West explained, because about two thirds of its funding comes from private sources - individual donors, corporate...

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