Politics Embroil Gulf Research Grants
Filed under: Discovery,Gulf Oil Spill,News & Resources
(Click to enlarge image) Ed Overton, an analytical chemist at Louisiana State University, is growing impatient with delays in research funds. (Tim Mueller, Associated Press / June 18, 2010)
BP pledges to put up $500 million for ecological study, but the money may be restricted to Gulf Coast state universities. Some say the limits are counter to the spirit of science.
(From Los Angeles Times / by Julie Cart) — University professors in the gulf region responded with delight last month to BP’s pledge to put up $500 million for academic research into the Gulf of Mexico’s ecology over the next 10 years. With no significant federal grants on the horizon and an urgency to begin work, some of the academics had taken to using their own credit cards in hopes they would soon be reimbursed.
But their excitement at the windfall turned to chagrin last week after the White House ordered BP to consult with Gulf Coast governors before awarding research grants.
Elected officials in the region responded by demanding that the financial bonanza not spread beyond their own state universities, potentially leaving out such distinguished oceanographic institutions as Woods Hole in Massachusetts and Scripps in San Diego.
The political intervention has transformed the normally independent, merit-based process of matching grant money with researchers into a parochial tug-of-war for BP’s millions. The imbroglio also has galvanized scientists who bristle at the notion that elected officials could direct sophisticated academic research.
Chris D’Elia, dean of the School of the Coast and Environment at Louisiana State University, in Baton Rouge, said the region was replete with coastal and marine experts. But he said a restriction on which labs can participate was “foolishly constraining” of the collaborative process common among scientists.
“We have a huge amount of expertise in this environment; we know it best,” D’Elia said, sweeping an arm toward the campus hosting numerous departments that study the Gulf of Mexico and its coast. “But where our capabilities do not exist in the gulf states, there are obvious partners in the rest of the U.S. and elsewhere who should be available to us, to help as we work on this problem. It makes no sense to arbitrarily exclude those capabilities just for political reasons.”
The overlay of politics onto independent, peer-reviewed science has led some on the international advisory committee that will vet the research proposals to complain that they might walk away from the oil company’s offer.
Professor Jörg Imberger, who directs the Center for Water Research at the University of Western Australia, is one of six scientists recruited by BP to an advisory council that will determine which projects receive funds. He said he has been following the events with alarm.
