Top labs’ younger staff ‘most exposed’ to basic funding freezes

Norway’s most promising young researchers will suffer disproportionately from the country’s painful moves to slim down its main research funder, a leading academic has said.

The Research Council of Norway will cut its budget by NKr2 billion (£167.8 million) in 2023 as part of a government clampdown on spending, and among the agreed savings is the cancellation of the 2023 round of its open, all-discipline FRIPRO call for groundbreaking research.

The targeting of investigator-led basic research will disproportionately affect leading laboratories, with those academics still establishing their careers likely to be hardest hit by the loss of funding, said Eystein Jansen, a professor in marine geology at the University of Bergen.

“The impact in the short term here, especially for young scientists, will be quite harsh,” he told Times Higher Education.

“There’s already rising concern that young research talents are shying away from choosing a research career, so we risk losing young talents in the best Norwegian groups.

“Those who are depending on that kind of funding will have nowhere else to go except moving, sending their proposals elsewhere or leaving science.”

Sigrid Vikjord, a physician-researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who was planning to apply for the research council’s early career open call – which offers up to NKr8 million per project – said one year “actually means quite a lot” for these calls.

“You often have to apply several years in a row to actually be successful, to improve your application each round,” said Dr Vikjord, who, at 37, is worried that she will pass the 40-year-old eligibility cut-off before she has a successful application. Similar grants typically require applicants to be internationally mobile, she said, which is particularly difficult as a mother of two young children.

The European Research Council is another option, but its already slim success rates of about 16 per cent are likely to be lowered further if ministers’ plan to cut €122 million (£105.6 million) from the fund’s annual budget go through.

“If you look at Norway, the ERC funding is very important in the best-performing research groups, and the talent this retains there is, of course, not a stable resource,” said Professor Jansen, who will serve as one of the ERC’s vice-presidents from January 2023.

Unlike much of the European Union, the prospects for Norway’s public finances looked good, he said, because the country had stepped in as a replacement gas supplier after Russian reductions. Norway’s decision to cut research funding was instead anti-inflationary, he said.

While the economic rationales may vary, Professor Jansen said it was important that basic research was not seen as a politically cost-free target for cuts. “There are reasons to be somewhat afraid, and we need more scientists to speak up and explain why investing in basic research really pays off,” he said, referring to forecast recessions elsewhere in Europe.

“I don’t think politicians really appreciate how fast it is to tear down a well-functioning research lab if funding disappears, compared to how long it takes to build it up.”

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com