CNSF COVID January 2021 Letter: ASPB is pleased to be a signee on the Coalition for National Science Funding’s (CNSF) letter encouraging emergency relief funding for the National Science Foundation.
Though our nation’s scientists and research institutions have risen to the challenge of the pandemic, they are facing enormous strains on their operations and infrastructure. NSF needs additional funding to support research grants, students and post-docs, early-career faculty, and scientific facilities. Federally funded scientists and engineers are experiencing significant negative impacts to their work during the pandemic, such as delays or cessation of their research projects, an extremely challenging academic and research job market, lab closures, and uncertainty about continuing to pay salaries, extend timelines, access needed lab equipment, and Coalition for National Science Funding.
These impacts have disproportionately affected students, trainees, and early-career researchers, who make up an important segment of NSF award recipients. Without emergency relief, we risk many early-career researchers and STEM students leaving science altogether, losing a generation of diverse talent that is the bedrock of our national competitiveness. We would also lose the return on the investments that we have already made in the careers of U.S. scientists and engineers, the research they advance, and the research infrastructure that supports them.