With a 10 percent cut in state funding for research looming, campus units are planning for substantial cuts and difficult choices. The cuts are likely to fall hardest on the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, which receives more than half of the state research funds allocated to the campus.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the Division of Biological Sciences, the School of Veterinary Medicine and the School of Medicine's M.I.N.D. Institute are also likely to be significantly affected.
Other units, such as the College of Engineering, the Office of Graduate Studies and the Division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies, which receive less state research funding, will take smaller cuts.
The timing of any cuts depends on when the state legislature adopts its final budget, now in conference committee. The governor's proposal would allow the university to vary cuts to state-funded research in a range from 6 percent to 30 percent, but Senate and Assembly committees have challenged that provision.
While the budget debate continues, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw is asking deans and vice chancellors to submit plans by July 15 for a one-time reduction in their 2002-03 state-funded research budgets.
"I do not believe it is appropriate to assign permanent cuts of this order of magnitude on such short notice," Hinshaw wrote. In the fall, Hinshaw will ask the entire campus to participate in strategic planning for permanent reductions in organized research and other programs, effective July 1, 2003.
Hinshaw asked deans to submit one-time reduction plans for 2002-03 that mitigate the cuts' immediate impact on staff by using carryforward balances and salary savings from vacant positions. She also asked the deans to work closely with Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources Dennis Shimek to identify opportunities for reassigning affected staff to other campus positions.
To soften the cuts' impact, organized research funds will be exempted from the 1.7 percent across-the-board cut announced in April and unit budgetary savings targets will reduced accordingly, according to the memo.
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences receives about $37 million in state research funding out of a total of $63 million for the whole campus. A flat 10 percent cut would cost the college about $3.7 million.
"Clearly, the scope of the proposed budget cuts is extremely serious," said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the college. "Despite this challenge, we will strive to maintain the excellence of our research and educational programs. The problem is we haven't yet recovered from the budget cuts of the early '90s."
The state Agricultural Experiment Station, the major source of funding for the college, would likely be heavily affected. Research projects run by the station include ensuring a safe and reliable food supply, protecting the environment and supporting communities. The experiment station includes more than 750 scientists and about 1,300 research projects at UC Davis, UC Riverside and UC Berkeley. UC Davis hosts more experiment station researchers and programs than Berkeley and Riverside combined.
"It's hard to put a dollar sign on millions of people eating safer foods, breathing cleaner air and drinking healthier water with the help of research funded through the Agricultural Experiment Station," Van Alfen said.
"Given the reality of the state's fiscal situation, we will have difficult choices to make in the year ahead," Van Alfen said. The budget choices made today must be consistent with maintaining the long-term vitality of productive programs, he said. They should position the college to grow again when budgets are restored, he said.
The college also receives extensive research funding from other sources such as federal agencies.
Van Alfen said he plans to hold regular brown-bag lunches to discuss the budget with faculty and staff, and will issue periodic e-mail updates as needed.
Biological Sciences
Cuts to the Agricultural Exper-imental Station will also affect the Division of Biological Sciences, which receives about $3.5 million in state research funds, almost all through the station. Ninety-four of the division's 117 faculty have research projects funded by the station, according to division administrators. State funds would be reduced by $350,000.
However, most extramural funding at the division is from federal agencies and private foundations. "I am discussing with section chairs and center directors how to preserve the priorities of the Division of Biological Sciences in the face of these substantial cuts," said Phyllis Wise, dean of biological sciences.
Office of Research
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research would reduce spending by about $600,000. State research funding is currently used to support core budgets for Organized Research Units including the Bodega Marine Laboratory, the Crocker Nuclear Lab, the Institute of Governmental Affairs, the John Muir Institute for the Environment and the Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing, among others. It also supports core facilities such as the UC Davis Biotechnology Program and the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility.
Most of these units and programs rely on other sources for much of their funding, with state research funds providing some administrative support.
State research funds allocated to the Office of Research also support such programs as: the Equipment Matching Funds Program, which helps pay for large items of equipment sponsored by other sources; the Bridge Program, which provides one-time funding to continue high-quality research projects through a temporary gap in external funding; and some faculty research and travel grants.
"We are developing a strategy to minimize the impact of the budget cuts on the units that the Office of Research supports. With some belt-tightening, the deferral of non-critical expenditures and by spreading some cuts over a multi-year period, we hope to soften the impact of this major cut in our research budget," said Vice Chancellor for Research Barry Klein.
Veterinary Medicine
The anticipated budget cut of $200,000 in state research funds at the School of Veterinary Medicine would limit the school's ability to respond to some requests for research from outside groups and agencies, said Bennie Osburn, dean of the veterinary school. Areas that could be affected include food safety, water-borne illnesses, sustainable production and animal-health issues such as bluetongue and avian influenza.
"We have tried to minimize the cuts, but everyone is stepping up to try to find ways to make the cuts and minimize their impact," Osburn said.
The school has not enacted a hiring freeze, but is looking very critically at all searches now under way, he said.
M.I.N.D. Institute
The School of Medicine's M.I.N.D. Institute, established to study and treat autism and other diseases, faces a cut of $500,000. To meet this target, the institute will not fill open positions and will evaluate reducing some operating expenses, according to chief administrative officer Kathy Lelevier. Last year, the institute put its education program and the hiring of an education director on hold until funding became available.
Lelevier said that the institute will continue to expand its clinical program serving children with neurodevelopmental disorders, including expanding clinical research trials to find the most effective treatments for autism and other disorders. The institute remains on schedule to next April occupy its new facilities, currently under construction, she said.