{"id":254981,"date":"2025-06-06T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/?post_type=bu-article&#038;p=254981"},"modified":"2025-06-06T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T17:07:15","slug":"persevering-with-or-without-grants","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/2025\/persevering-with-or-without-grants\/","title":{"rendered":"Persevering With or Without Grants"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<div class=\"wp-block-editorial-leadin sphnews-block-editorial-leadin is-style-side-by-side has-media has-wider has-media-focus-center-middle\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container-lockup\">\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-leadin-media\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1280\" height=\"800\" src=\"\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner.png\" class=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner.png 1280w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-636x398.png 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-755x472.png 755w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-900x563.png 900w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/files\/2025\/01\/Public-Health-Matters-webbanner-1200x750.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px\" \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-outer\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"container-words-inner\">\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"wp-prepress-tag\">PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"head\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPersevering With or Without Grants\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h4 class=\"deck\">The deep cuts to federal funding for scientific research are disheartening and dangerous, but the show must go on.<\/h4>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar sphnews-prepress-layout-metabar\">\n\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-date\">June 6, 2025<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-credits\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul data-credit-type=\"By\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/authors\/michael-stein-md\/\">Michael Stein, MD<\/a><\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-prepress-component-metabar-share js-bu-prepress-share-tools\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"icon-action\"><\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\n\n\n<p>It is the right time to stop and admit that this has been a disorienting and dispiriting year for researchers. What are, and will be, acceptable topics for investigation have become increasingly unclear. We are like silent film makers who understood the format from another era but now must now adapt to the demands of a new audience\u2014government officials whose tastes and mandates remain murky.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We run through our grant proposal wordings again and again, like movie actors who do take after exhausted take.&nbsp; The old pact has been broken. How many tries will suffice to write a grant in 2025? Can we repurpose unused outtakes or our greatest hits that worked in the past. There is certainly an audience for science <em>fiction <\/em>(measles cured by antibiotics or cod liver oil), but no one wants to pay for the old script of science anymore.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conventional consolation seems to miss the point. With \u201ctalkies,\u201d movies changed for the better, most people believed. Subjects proliferated, film-making improved. Today, the ambient forces do not favor progress. No one wants to hear from scientists, the silent stars of the past.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New funding has stopped arriving, spending has been limited, hallways and offices have been emptier than in the past. Too many days, academic buildings have the mood of a once-thriving small town that has fallen on hard times. The usual spirited mood of the place has quieted. We try to keep up with the national news that pertains to research but it is the fun-house mirror of the reality we used to inhabit. The distortions are now the facts. Anxiety feels likes a duty. As researchers, it is hard not to be bitter, although we were never <em>promised <\/em>funding; we didn\u2019t begin this work with any guarantees other than that there existed an open market for ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This summer will be an in-between time for researchers and staff. A time between the big and grave matter of lost grants in the spring, and anticipated deeper cuts in federal funding in the fall. Luckily, investigators are stubborn, determined in their pursuit of knowledge. We will persevere, and will try and try again to offer mastery, methodically planned experiments, and care in the interpretation of outcomes to the cash-depleted market that remains. It is a righteous dispute, this quarrel over knowledge and knowing. It is clear who the nemeses are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As they say in Hollywood, the show must go on.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael D. Stein, MD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dean Ad Interim<br>Boston University School of Public Health<br>mdstein@bu.edu<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Previous Public Health <em>Matters<\/em> are archived at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/category\/public-health-matters\/\">https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/news\/articles\/category\/public-health-matters\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is the right time to stop and admit that this has been a disorienting and dispiriting year for researchers. What are, and will be, acceptable topics for investigation have become increasingly unclear. We are like silent film makers who understood the format from another era but now must now adapt to the demands of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15205,"featured_media":249207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":"PUBLIC HEALTH MATTERS"},"tags":[5140],"bu-publication":[3516],"sphnews-article-category":[3519,3531,5139],"sphnews-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"profile_tax":[2135],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/254981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15205"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254981"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/254981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255047,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/254981\/revisions\/255047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-article-category?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"sphnews-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sphnews-topic?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=254981"},{"taxonomy":"profile_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_tax?post=254981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}