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Researchers across the country have found their work in limbo
Update: 2025-01-27
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Research scientists who get funding from the National Institutes of Health — the biggest funder of biomedical research in the world — have had key meetings about their grants canceled recently. There’s little clarity on why and whether it’s a temporary pause or something bigger. We’ll hear more. Also, we’ll be joined by Artis Stevens, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, to learn about the economic payoff of mentorship.
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Transcript
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00:01:02
Researchers across the country have suddenly found their work in Limbo.
00:01:09
From Marketplace, I'm Sabrina Benesore, Infra-David Brancachio.
00:01:13
Research scientists who get funding from the National Institutes of Health have had meetings about
00:01:17
their grants canceled. This is happening the same time as a ban on all external communication by
00:01:22
the NIH and other agencies within Health and Human Services through February 1st. The NIH is the
00:01:28
biggest funder of biomedical research in the world and there is little clarity on why meetings are
00:01:34
being canceled and whether it's just a temporary pause or something bigger. Marketplace's Samantha
00:01:39
Fields has more. This Thursday, Gregory Decker was supposed to be going to a meeting where he and
00:01:44
a bunch of other scientists would review grant applications for NIH funding. But last week he got
00:01:49
an email, kind of a little cryptic leaf saying that it was canceled. Decker is an assistant professor
00:01:55
of biochemistry at the University of Utah where he does NIH funded research of his own. He says
00:02:00
lots of scientists have had upcoming grant reviews canceled and there's been no communication from
00:02:05
the NIH about why or when they might be rescheduled. People are anxious because the research is very
00:02:11
dependent upon having funding renewed so that you can continue the studies. It's not just grant
00:02:17
review meetings. Rebecca Pompano, a professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering at the
00:02:21
University of Virginia was supposed to go to a training last week to be a grant reviewer but it
00:02:26
was canceled too. Twenty minutes before it was supposed to start. Without that training she and
00:02:32
others won't be able to review NIH funding applications. And even if all of this is just temporary and
00:02:37
everything is rescheduled soon. Even a delay of a month or several months in funding could make the
00:02:45
difference between a scientist being able to stay working on a particular research project or
00:02:52
having to leave to get a different job somewhere else. And so you would lose that ability to pick
00:02:56
up the research again. Even if the grant eventually comes through. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace.
00:03:02
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00:03:48
Having a mentor when you're young receiving that investment of time has economic returns. It can
00:03:55
actually increase socioeconomic mobility. That is the takeaway from decades of data from the big
00:04:01
brothers, big sisters of America mentorship network. Former mentees got higher salaries in their
00:04:06
early 20s compared to others in their cohort. They had better college attendance and healthier
00:04:10
social bonds according to this report. Marketplace Morning Report host David Brancaccio recently spoke
00:04:15
with the president and CEO of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of America artist Stephens. Here's David.
00:04:21
I mean you've gotten people to go through it looks like decades of data and if people are concerned
00:04:28
about economic inequality in society apparently there's something you can do about it. Tell me more.
00:04:35
Yeah, that's absolutely it. For the mentorship particularly on young people who had mentorship
00:04:41
in our program and this was data going back from 30 years ago of young people who were in our program
00:04:46
with the control group of young people or not the participants in our program experienced a 20%
00:04:52
it was 20% more likelihood to attend college 15% boost in their earnings in lifetime and then
00:04:59
being able to see that these young people who were typically in lower economic ladders be able to
00:05:04
climb the social economic ladder and move up to higher economic brackets right so we know that
00:05:10
this investment not only works for young people we know the investment works for the impact of our
00:05:15
society and our economy and our workforce and our education system and that's why it's so
00:05:21
pivotal and so important that more people are invested in mentorship in this country.
00:05:25
You've looked at the numbers what it costs to do this kind of mentorship and what society gets
00:05:32
back in terms of if people make more money they pay more taxes and that contributes back what did
00:05:37
you find? We saw really a focus on how it reduces the cost of social services and it was based
00:05:43
upon analysis that the government could recoup the cost so the investment it actually calls to
00:05:50
invest in the kid having mentorship right being in the mentorship program that cost is
00:05:54
recruiting just seven years and then beyond those seven years what you started to see is even more
00:06:00
our lot that is now coming back into communities now coming back into the tax base but we're also
00:06:06
seeing that's a lot with other research is that the more that we have mentorship and seeing young
00:06:11
people move into these higher levels of social economic growth and opportunities you have
00:06:16
communities that then are less likely to have crime less likely to have certain types of health
00:06:24
decisions and health choices that are risky for young people with a substance abuse things that have
00:06:30
to do with mental health and taking care of well-being so there's a true ripple effect in terms of what an
00:06:36
action of investment of time in a young person's life can mean for the broader society and the work
00:06:41
that we're doing to support everyone across this country and I know you're here representing big
00:06:46
brothers big sisters but we we should acknowledge that you can mentor in many different ways it's
00:06:52
one of the things what we talk about this idea of access right access is certainly for young people
00:06:58
that have mentorship in their lives and they have positive adults but access is also for the volunteer
00:07:04
90% of our volunteers what we call bigs tell us that the young person made more impact on their
00:07:10
lives than they made on theirs right that's their feeling their perception so when we say that
00:07:14
mentorship is powerful it's reciprocal so it gives the idea of saying yes I can make a difference
00:07:20
to what you just said but it's also I become better I become more exposed I become more engaged
00:07:26
in my community I have something that empowers me to be not just a better person but a better
00:07:32
contributor to society as well and those are the types of things we want to continue to build
00:07:37
to your point whether you come in imbalance here for big brothers big sisters or whether you're
00:07:42
just a mentor in any aspect of your life what we know is it works and it pays dividends and it has
00:07:48
high or why artist Stevens present CEO of big brothers big sisters of America thank you so much
00:07:54
thank you for having me our Stevens was speaking with marketplaces david broncacho there
00:07:59
in new york i'm subribenisher with the marketplace morning report from a p.m. american public media
00:08:09
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