Undergraduate research opportunities are incredibly valuable, both for the students and for the progress of the work. And having undergraduate research experience is a massive help for grad school admission. REU cancellations harm students’ preparedness & career prospects, and slow research progress - ThreadSky

astrokatie.com • 3 days ago

Undergraduate research opportunities are incredibly valuable, both for the students and for the progress of the work. And having undergraduate research experience is a massive help for grad school admission. REU cancellations harm students’ preparedness & career prospects, and slow research progress

Reposted from Stand Up for Science 2025 - DC and Nationwide!

🚨 Many NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are being cancelled for Summer 2025.

www.reddit.com/r/REU/commen...

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stephens.website•3 days ago

For a second, I thought you'd written "underground research", and now I'm starting to think people may need to look into *those* opportunities.

jranch4.bsky.social•3 days ago

They are resending PhD program offers for students at our university. There will be a whole cycle or more of potential PhD researchers in biomedical science missing. This is terrible for our country. This university has graduate students working on research in Alzheimer's, cancer, HIV,...

taffydacks.bsky.social•3 days ago

REUs were some of the most impactful experiences as an undergrad. 💔

petraboynton.bsky.social•3 days ago

We're already seeing the huge impact the pandemic and home working made to undergrads in terms of missed in-person experiences and skills development. It's responsible for a lot of stress and difficulty for PGRs and those in other jobs now. This will only worsen an already challenging environment

anotherdrmuller.bsky.social•3 days ago

Exactly. These undergrads are the ones who were in HS during the pandemic.

mudkipfan217.bsky.social•2 days ago

We had an REU student join our research group for the summer a few years back. They were so motivated and got so much done because it was temporary and they didn't have the same opportunities back at their university. It was a win-win situation. I have only good things to say about the REU program

vppark.bsky.social•2 days ago

📌

trishinohio.bsky.social•3 days ago

I know! My poor girlfriend in law is a wreck about it, understandably.

drbirdeye.bsky.social•2 days ago

Why cant academic institutions and the private sector finance this research?

briar-rose.bsky.social•2 days ago

The government set up the fund structure to cover university research overhead by design. It is a cost effective way to get top-quality research output that benefits all of us. https://time.com/7259548/why-government-should-pay-for-university-research-costs/

rhofgc.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's really sad to watch US academia be scrapped for parts in this anti-intellectual era. I met many brilliant people at grad school (UCSC Astro) that would not be there if it weren't for the programs that are being destroyed at this very moment.

wintercloud.bsky.social•3 days ago

My first career was as bioscience research associate. My undergrad research opportunity was instrumental in finding a job at a research institute. Looking back my undergrad project was “small,” but it provided a solid grounding in the techniques of molecular biosciences.

planetneish.bsky.social•3 days ago

I can trace my career directly back to an REU I participated in during my senior year of college. These cuts are painful to see.

brennanml.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is going to blow a hole in an entire cohort of young doctors and scientists, and the impacts of this aren't even going to be truly felt for another decade.

stephenblackmoore.com•3 days ago

Well, we'll all be dead by then through preventable food-borne diseases or being thrown into Trump Gestapo camps, so it's all good.

brennanml.bsky.social•3 days ago

It's cholera all the way down!

astrokatie.com•3 days ago

I was involved in an NSF-funded REU program at NC State a few years ago. Here's a short video featuring the students in the program talking about how valuable it was for them in terms of developing their skills and helping them embark on scientific careers. Cancelling programs like this is senseless

drcsciencefun.bsky.social•3 days ago

When I was managing research projects, I supervised eight students. I couldn’t have done the work without them.

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