Funding research is disheartening

This year has been tough for me, sciencewise. I had to take a mental health day a few weeks ago after a funding application was rejected. It was my fourth rejection this year and another followed a few days later. Each application took several weeks to prepare.

I remember once chatting with my brother about my job as a university scientist, how I spend my time thinking of neat science projects, and then trying to find the money for the experiments. He was astonished: ‘‘Doesn’t your university pay for your research?’’ Nope.

On a standard university lecturer contract, I’m paid to do research two days a week. This means I plan experiments, sort out safety, and supervise a great team of students and scientists who do the work. I also have to find the money to pay salaries and buy everything they need, like petri-dishes, tubes and chemicals. Hence all the funding applications.

Without money, our projects progress at a snail’s pace, if at all. A few years ago, I tried to get funding to educate teens about chlamydia, a bacterial infection that often goes undiagnosed and can lead to infertility. After several rejections, I parked the idea. Our chlamydia rates continue to rise.

Before you think I suck at funding applications, at least two of the applications I submitted this year were ranked in the top 20 per cent of those received. Unfortunately, there was only money to fund the top 10-15 per cent.

New Zealand spends significantly less on research than other OECD countries, just 1.3 per cent of GDP compared with 1.9 per cent for Australia and 2.2 per cent for Singapore.

The Government’s current strategy is to get more businesses funding research, but we also need cash to fund more applications like mine.

Where could the money come from? Earlier this year, a new law passed that aims to stop multinational companies legally side-stepping their tax obligations. Each year, we lose millions in potential tax revenue because companies shift well over $1 billion in profits offshore.

I’ll be pleading with the Government to put some of the new taxes into science and maybe next year I’ll have better luck.

I also have to find the money to pay salaries and buy everything the students need, like petri-dishes, tubes and chemicals.