According to Georgi, most life science concentrators who submit “well thought-out and cogent [research] proposals” will receive support for their research from Harvard funds. But federal budget cuts that went into effect earlier this year as part of the sequester have already dipped into some of Harvard’s most important government grants, with the extended impact on undergraduate research left to be seen.
Rachelle Gaudet, professor of molecular and cellular biology and a member of the PRISE selection committee, said undergraduates will not necessarily be hurt even if laboratories do see their grants go down because supporting undergraduate research is “a fairly low-cost endeavor” compared to adding graduate students.
Nevertheless, a reduction in any kind of lab staff could have long-term effects.
“The capacity to host undergraduates is sort of limited by the presence of people who are able to, you know, supervise them day to day,” Gaudet said.
Brooks Swift said she thinks more students may apply for HCRP funding as opportunities like the Research Experiences for Undergraduates grants—a program funded by the National Science Foundation—are reduced as a possible result of federal cuts. Enos expressed similar concerns over limitations on NSF funding for political science projects.
Yet students remain optimistic about research prospects.
“I predict that funding for research will rebound in the future, and that this is more than likely a temporary reduction,” said Samuel F. Wohns ’14, a social studies concentrator and recipient of the HCRP grant for independent research. “Our country sooner or later will have to realize that funding for research, like funding for other programs that serve the public interest, cannot be slashed without serious consequences.”
FUTURE ON TRACK
Pursuing innovative research is one of the highlights of achieving professorial tenure, but as tenure positions become more competitive, so too will the market for new researchers, according to Enos.
“The ratio between people with Ph.Ds and tenured members is getting worse and worse,” he said.
But even if tenured opportunities are harder to come by, Enos described the alternatives as numerous, ranging from University-affiliated research institutions that employ non-tenured faculty members and students to the private sector, where startups and political campaigns are both sources of research jobs.
Gaudet also mentioned intellectual property law and science policy as professional paths in the life sciences.
Additionally, she noted that future professional prospects are hard to predict, because budget contractions and expansions are often cyclical.
“It’s quite possible that in five years things will pick up again,” Gaudet said, adding that she encourages her students to pursue research. “The time scale of establishing a career in the sciences is such that it’s not quite clear to an undergraduate what he will be after graduate school or a postdoc.”
—Staff writer Francesca Annicchiarico can be reached at fannicchiarico01@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @FRAnnicchiarico.