With the beckoning of a new semester, it feels an appropriate time to reflect on the fall semester’s funding frenzy from which academics are still recovering. Grants are crucial to research institutions for funding research materials, staff, graduate student costs, as well as the university. A whopping 64% indirect cost rate (on the Ithaca campus) is applied to any research grant that Cornell receives which supports administrative staff and maintenance. When the most reliable funding sources to support graduate students are no longer available and TA slots are becoming more competitive than ever, the pressure on graduate students is insurmountable. Other methods of reducing inefficiencies in the research process might include streamlining the grant process and making grant calls more specific to a research group’s subject of expertise.

Source: Daily Sun January 21, 2026 18:39 UTC