Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2024

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NSF Study Shows Sharp Decline in Postdocs At the end of March, the NSF released new survey data indicating a sharp drop in the number of postdocs, particularly those in the biological and biomedical sciences. The survey data underscore concerns within the academic community about a postdoc shortage and that early-career scientists are increasingly seeking positions outside academia. According to the latest data release, 62,750 postdocs were employed at US institutions in the fall of 2022, a 1% drop compared with the previous year. However, the trend diverges sharply by citizenship. From 2021 to 2022, the number of US citizens and permanent residents working as postdocs dropped from 29,755 to 27,289. The 8% change is the largest year-to-year percent age-wise drop in the history of the survey, which has collected data since 1980. Meanwhile, the number of postdocs with tem porary visas increased by 6%, from 33,573 to 35,461, about the same number as in 2020. The declines coincide with a boom in hiring at biotech companies. In addition, data from a separate survey released by the NSF last year indicated that fewer US PhD graduates in the life sciences are pursuing postdocs than ever before, with an increasing number heading to industry.

Congress Strikes Deal for Fiscal Year 2024, Kicks Off Fiscal Year 2025 Discussions As it turns out, March was filled not only with basketball but budgetary madness. We now know the outcome of the fiscal year 2024 (FY24) budget and where the starting point for FY25 is with the release of the White House budget. Let’s start with the outcome for FY24. The best news is that we are finished with the continuing resolutions; secondary to that is that the numbers, although not what we hoped for, are not as devastating to research as they could have been. The first of the two minibus packages passed on March 9 covered funding for 6 of the 12 overall appropriations bills, including funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. DOE’s Office of Science was one of the few research pro grams to fare better than in the previous year, getting a 1.7% ($140 million) increase to $8.2 billion. However, that boost will not keep pace with the cost of inflation. NSF fared con siderably worse, with an 8.3% cut to $9.1 billion, some $820 million below its funding for 2023. Last year, NSF’s budget received an additional boost through emergency spending to

fund the new Technology, Innovation and Partnerships direc torate; however, those funds were not replenished for FY24. The second minibus, passed on March 23, included funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The funding es sentially leaves the agency “flat” for this year at $41.7 billion, down 1% from the $47.5 billion allotted to the agency in 2023. It should be noted that the final funding numbers for FY23 included additional funds appropriated through the 21st Cen tury Cures Act, so while the FY24 budget is $300 million over the base funding for FY23, it still represents a reduction from the total overall amount that NIH received in 2023. Looking forward to FY25, the White House released its re quest to Congress on March 11. Although this is a leaping-off point for the agencies and Appropriations Committees to work from, the request for FY25 is considerably more modest than anything that we have seen from this administration previously. President Joe Biden ’s request includes a 6.41% increase for the NIH, to raise the budget from $47.1 billion to $50.1 billion. This modest increase would still leave each institute with negligible increases overall. The NSF fares a bit better, with a request of $10.2 billion, a 13% increase over FY24. Although the research areas within the NSF will see modest adjustments, the President put the

May 2024

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