LAS CRUCES, N.M.—New Mexico State University is facing a research funding squeeze.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reported Monday that research and development funds have decreased more than 16 percent at NMSU as competition has increased for scarcer federal funding.
For fiscal year 2010, the peak of federal stimulus initiatives, NMSU’s sponsored awards expenditures were $163 million.
That dropped to $157 in 2011 and $136 million last year.
“It’s tough times right now,” says Jeff Arterburn, who is working to develop a new class of drugs to combat breast cancer. “It’s very, very competitive.”
The National Institutes of Health has funded his research for many years. But the agency has recently shifted its focus to research done at the end of drug development, like clinical trials, rather than the beginning, like testing with cell cultures, he said.
If the funding isn’t renewed, his research could stop.
