Recent federal cuts to science funding have caused unprecedented instability for researchers at Duke. Researchers are afraid to plan for experiments that take weeks to months when they could receive news of layoffs in a matter of days. We have had to work under constant stress regarding the security of our positions, with multiple researchers already having had to leave Duke. For international researchers, the stress is worse given that losing jobs will affect their legal status to remain in the United States, where many have been building lives for years.
Duke’s administration has responded by unveiling modest bridge funding opportunities thus far, but other research institutions have put their resources to use more fully and openly.
Johns Hopkins, which has a similar endowment to Duke’s, provides substantial bridge funding of $100,000 over 12 months and pivot funding of $150,000 over 12 months for faculty who apply. This is beyond the year of support offered to PhDs and postdoctoral scholars to complete their programs. To support such efforts, Hopkins is tapping into its endowment. Meanwhile, Harvard and Yale offer up to 80 or 90% of funding lost from federal cuts, in an uncapped manner proportional to the original grant amount…