Giving Compass' Take:

• Dr. Jayeeta Basu, assistant professor of neuroscience and physiology at New York University, discusses the difficulties for young people (especially women) to pursue careers in science as well as the challenges to obtain funding. 

• What are some ways that philanthropists could help mitigate funding challenges?  

• Read about how to encourage more women to go into STEM. 

Dr. Jayeeta Basu is an Assistant Professor of neuroscience and physiology at New York University. We’re interviewing Jayeeta as part of our series on science funding at Lyrical Science.

Jayeeta, you mentioned in your Ted Talk that only about 10 percent of PhD students and postdocs end up in academic careers. Why is this happening? What can we do to help young scientists stay in science?

The main reason for this is a lack of positions and funding in academia. State of the art experimentation is costly and government funding is very limited. Typically, only 5–10 percent of grants submitted to government agencies are funded. There is a big gap in early career funding that helps PhDs and post-doctoral researchers transition to the next level of their careers.

What are some of the main challenges you face in raising funds as Principal Investigator? How much of your time does grant writing take?

There is a lack of training in grant writing and an absence of non-traditional marketing resources that would allow me to pitch my work without having to go through lengthy paperwork and time-consuming grant applications. 60% of my time is spent in preparing and writing grants. This is precious time taken away from what actually matters — conducting experiments and our actual research.

Do you think that women face specific challenges in building science careers? Women are in many ways dominating Ph.D. training cohorts, but they are heavily under-represented in tenure-track academic jobs. Why is this happening?

Yes, women are an under-represented minority in my field at the faculty and leadership level. We lack systemic support that allows a healthy work-life balance necessary for raising a family while running a lab and conducting lab research.

Read the full article about philanthropy and women in STEM from Lyrical Science at Medium