William C. Phillips III

Researchers at SIUC have had trouble receiving funds for their work because of a Congressional impasse on deciding the national budget, an SIUC administrative official says.

Victoria Molfese, director of research development in administration, said like many government workers, SIUC is waiting for a paycheck.

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We’re waiting on money that the government hopes they will have to operate on, she said. In any given year, the University does about $30 million in (government) sponsored projects.

Molfese said SIUC is relying on the same amount this year from the federal government for research projects.

Members of Congress have been wrestling with each other for advantage in a dispute over balancing the budget, and that has caused the delay in SIUC research money, Molfese said.

Molfese, also associate dean of the SIUC Graduate School, said the University sends out written proposals and relies on certain federal agencies, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Institute of Health, NASA and the U.S. Army, to fund research.

We don’t predict we will receive fewer dollars, she said. It’s just the process of receiving the funds is slower.

The agencies receive funding from the government and choose which research projects they will fund at colleges and other institutions.

Events held at Shryock Auditorium, the operation of campus-based television and radio stations and public affairs are some of the projects for which the University depends on funding.

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Also, Molfese said Shryock Auditorium usually receives $14,000 which is used for art events and programs for children, and the SIUC media receive $2 million in funding.

While the agencies have some money to fund us, we are not sure what will happen to projects we would like to begin in this fiscal year, Molfese said. We’re not sure what will happen to proposals that we already submitted for new funds because the agencies are uncertain that they will receive funding.

Molfese said some federal funds which SIUC researches have already received have come in late, affecting the starting time of projects.

David Gibson, associate professor of plant biology, said his research was affected by the budget impasse because he did not receive funds on time.

Since the budget in Washington was not balanced, the National Science Foundation could not give out awards even ones they had agreed to give out, Gibson said.

Gibson said the starting date for his project to improve undergraduate education in environmental studies had passed, and the Foundation had not notified the University about when they would be able to send the funding.

Gibson was supposed to begin the project Jan. 1, but the University was not notified until Jan. 25 that it would receive the funding. Under normal circumstances, the University would be notified before the year began, he said.

He said faculty members do a great deal of work on their projects even before they receive the award, such as writing the proposal and preparation for the project.

We were ready to go to work, Gibson said.

Even though the Foundation had called and told the University to go ahead with the research, Gibson said he was skeptical to begin the project without a written agreement.

We had a verbal agreement from NSF that they would fund our project, but until it is written on paper, you don’t know for sure, he said. We were wondering if we should stop, but we received notification from NSF on Thursday.