[QUOTE=MerryMagdalen]
Mouse_Maven I’m sorry. I only work in a clinical lab - no research - but I know how crazy lab politics can be, and coupled with academia and the egos and money problems therein…erg.
The University of Washington does animal research, and gets a huge amount of research funds. I know a doctoral candidate working with mouse brainstems. Maybe you could relocate?
(If you want her name PM me.)
[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the generous offer. Lucky of us, Mouse_Spouse has a good job here. (He’s a computer/business guy. The U.'s behavior shocks him. You’re highly trained employee with a unique skill set. They’re just going to let you go?) We’ll tighten our belt and see what life is like after the Mouseling is born. (A recommended daycare center here costs as much as my monthly salary. I know that daycare isn’t cheap, but I was shocked!)
My ego hurts more than anything else. I love my work and its been killing me to see it go nowhere.
Fuck the University! Unless you’re a “Big Name” researcher, they don’t give a rat’s ass about you. They’re more worried about pulling the football team’s ass out of the fire than the academic programs.
The new - shit slapped together - buildings are impressive. That’s not enough to keep good researchers. They’re paid more, given better benfits and administrative support at other institutions.
54% of a grant (there are a few exceptions to this, but most are “taxed”) goes to the U. to cover Facilities and Administration. We call it Fucking A! I don’t see what we get out of this. The bathrooms don’t have soap or paper towels. The floor tiles in this *two year-old building * are popping up. Our floor doesn’t have an autoclave or purified water dispenser because they were “to expensive.” :rolleyes: Still constructing new gods-damned buildings. Everyone talks about how great the new hospital is. The Big Wigs aren’t fucking stupid. I’d bet that the hospital got better construction because the public will see it. Lots of people go into a hospital. Very few go into a lab.
A researcher gets a million dollar grant to be paid over 10 years. Sounds like a lot doesn’t it? After the U. get its cut - the PI is left with $460,000, or $46,000 a year. If this PI does animal research, all of this money will go to that, or it may pay for the salary of a post-doc or senior research assistant. Other grants, with the U. getting its bit, will be needed to pay for supplies and time spent on special equipment maintained by Core facilities. (The Cores cause a lot of headaches. Some techniques need very specialized and sensitive equipment. Its better to have a department buy and maintain the equipment and charge labs for using it. The charges for use will hit your grant whenever that department’s finance person gets to it. Its not unusual for a PI to get burned by Core charges that they thought were already paid. One of our researchers just got slamed with $20,000 of charges from several months of work!)
Why can’t the researchers keep track of their grants? It can’t be that different from balancing a check book, right? Fucking WRONG! The Financial System is esoteric, the programs are designed for accounts. Spend years studying biochemistry and now you have to know what encumberences are? Keep track of the 115 fiscal policies of the U and the policies of the foundations that give you the money. Also, the U takes its F&A a little bit every day. What you have today will be a little less tomorrow, even it you don’t buy anything. Its suggested that you get an admin assistant to help with all of this - with WHAT FUCKING MONEY! Anyway, were is the “Administrative” part of this F&A?
pant pant Ok, I’m going to clean my house. At least that will give me a sense of accomplishment.
Miscommunication - the staple of mass-produced humor - is dead common. PI’s don’t have a clue how much money they have, or where the tubes are, or how to get into the animal facility. Lab techs have to make sure that the PI gets out of the lab before s/he breaks something.