A new study shows that as science research funding falls at college campuses across the nation, scientists at UC Berkeley are also struggling to cope with limited resources.

A report by the National Science Foundation released Friday found that national funding for science research in higher education has failed to keep up with inflation in the past two years, resulting in an overall decrease.

The annual report stated that in 2007, research funding to UC Berkeley from the National Science Foundation increased to $88 million from $87 million the year before.

The campus's total federal contracts and grants, which make up most of its total research budget, increased by only 1 percent in 2007, to $282.3 million from $279.9 million, according to the UC Berkeley Sponsored Projects Office.

Federally funded research expenditures for overall campuses rose about 1 percent in 2007, according to the study. But after adjusting for inflation, funding has actually fallen 1.6 percent from 2006.

G. Steven Martin, chair of the molecular and cell biology department, said decreases in funding have hindered his department's research.

"Funding has definitely become more difficult after the last few years," Martin said. "Fewer grants are funded, and those that are funded are funded at lower levels."

Ruzena Bajscy, an electrical engineering and computer sciences professor who runs a lab that studies human body language, said she was not surprised by the report's findings. She said her lab has been experiencing budget shortfalls for the past four years. Most recently, her lab was promised a $200,000 grant by the National Science Foundation, which she said was never received.

"I think we just don't have our priorities right," Bajscy said. "Our competitiveness is going down because we're not spending enough money on research and development, education, health care, and that has direct ramifications for new companies, new products, new things that we need."

In her lab, Bajscy said she has been unable to hire as many graduate students as she would like due to a lack of funds.

"Simply, I just cannot support them. Students have to eat and they have to pay their bills, and if you don't have research money you cannot support them," she said. "It's a pinch all around."

Since only colleges and universities can receive funding from the National Science Foundation, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which are co-managed by the University of California and government agencies, do not share the same source of funding as UC Berkeley and were not included in the report.

But the labs are still vulnerable to changes in the federal budget, said Lynn Yarris, spokesperson for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"We have a huge deficit, so this has been a lean budget year," she said. "Some areas have done better than others, but we'd all like to do better."

According to Lynda Seaver, spokesperson for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the lab's budget fell to $1.5 billion from $1.7 billion over the past two years, a 13 percent decrease. The lab has laid off almost 500 employees since June.

Despite ever-shrinking funds, Seaver said the lab has managed to help offset a negative impact on its research by cutting operational costs and increasing efficiency.

"The goal has been to ensure that science does not suffer," she said.

Tags: LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY, LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY