U of M, Mayo feeling federal budget cuts - Brett Neely, Minnesota Public Radio

Seven months since automatic across-the-board federal budget cuts took effect, two of Minnesota's best-known research institutions are already feeling the squeeze. Scientists at the University of Minnesota and Mayo Clinic increasingly are turning their attention away from their research to fundraising to make up for a drop in federal grants that occurred after the federal government cut the National Institutes of Health budget by $1.7 billion. Among them is Gary Balas, a professor of aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota who researches flight control systems. One of many U of M faculty members with research grants and contracts from the federal government, Balas had counted on a three-year, $450,000 grant from the Air Force with two years left. But when Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to reach a budget deal and the automatic cuts went into effect this spring, research programs like his were targeted for cuts. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/08/30/news/university-sequestration-squeeze