Mass. research funding at risk

Schools, hospitals lobby against cuts by Congress

November 14, 2011|By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON - Massachusetts university and hospital officials, determined to prevent erosion of the research and development pillar of the state’s economy, have joined a lobbying slugfest over congressional efforts to slash hundreds of billions from the projected national debt.

The state stands to lose more than $680 million in federal research funding in 2013, or nearly 9 percent of the approximately $7.7 billion it is now estimated to receive, if a bipartisan deficit reduction panel does not hammer out a deal by Nov. 23 and automatic cuts to defense and domestic spending are triggered.

The cuts, the latest in a series, could imperil parts of the state’s medical and scientific sectors, which have become a critical economic driver. The sectors have sustained the Bay State through the recession, supported tens of thousands of jobs, trained young scientists with hopes of discovering cures, and anchored the life sciences industry in Massachusetts, the officials contend.

Even if the so-called congressional supercommittee reaches an agreement, leaders of Massachusetts universities and other institutions expect their research funds to be a part of its budget reduction calculus.

At stake is no less than Massachusetts’ future and the underpinnings of the nation’s economic competitiveness, say university presidents, hospital executives, and industry representatives who have been making regular trips to the capital to lobby Congress to preserve research money.

Boston and Cambridge, with one of the densest concentrations of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the country, is the epicenter for medical research. And Boston is home to the five independent hospitals receiving the most funds from the National Institutes of Health in the nation, said John Erwin, executive director of the Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals. Only California receives more NIH funds overall.

“Reducing funding for research would be an enormous mistake,’’ said Susan Hockfield, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of about 130 research university presidents who signed a letter to supercommittee members urging them to make bold reforms to entitlement programs and the tax code rather than nibble around the edges of the debt problem with further cuts to scientific research. “This is the kind of investment you have to make in good times and in bad.’’

Even some deficit hawks agree.

“Government does have a role to play in helping with basic research because it’s not always commercially feasible,’’ said Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition, an Arlington, Va.-based group advocating responsible fiscal policy. “We need to be careful not to cut things that are intended to help the economy grow in the future.’’