Krishna Pratap Sah, civil engineering graduate student, conducting research in Research I’s CoRE Lab on Oct. 29.
Rachel Jones
Environmental researchers at UCF are starting to feel the effects of the ongoing government shutdown, something that could also damage UCF’s preeminent metrics for the 2026 fiscal year.
Dr. Thomas Wahl, associate professor and lab director of the UCF Coastal Risks and Engineering Lab, said nearly everyone in his lab is at least partially paid by federal funding.
There are 10 active projects within the CoRE Lab that study the vulnerability of fragile coastal ecosystems and the infrastructure needed to better aid coastal societies. Wahl said that proposals and funding renewals are constantly being submitted.
Wahl said since the majority of the CoRE Lab receives government funding and the agencies that are needed to review the applications and renewals are not active, it is possible there are projects that will have funding gaps and delays.
“At this point, it’s just a waiting game,” Wahl said. “Working with what we have, people are continuing to do their job and continuing to do their research. We hope that we will come to a solution and that things will normalize again in the not-too-distant future.”
Dr. Michelle Gaither, associate professor and director of the Gaither Lab, echoed the sentiments of Wahl. The Gaither Lab focuses on the study of ecology, evolution and the biodiversity of marine wildlife.
Gaither said she is still able to spend money from the grant she has with the National Science Foundation, but it could be a problem depending on the duration of the shutdown. However, the grant she had expected to submit to the NSF in the coming weeks could be delayed.
“We’re probably about a couple of weeks out from submitting a grant, which we can’t submit until the government is up,” Gaither said.
The NSF has said that it will not be awarding grants during this time and it will not be able to approve or deny any new proposals until normal federal operations have resumed.
The Florida State Legislature outlined certain metrics that state universities could obtain to be classified as a “preeminent” institution and be eligible for additional state funding in 2013. A university only has to achieve twelve of the thirteen metrics to be considered, including total annual research expenditures of $200 million or more.