Budget cuts hit research hard

Colorado’s major research universities and federal labs have been hard hit by federal and state budget cuts.
Some have experienced 5 percent to 10 percent cuts in research funding, while others have seen upwards of 20 percent reductions. That means less money to pay grad students and research assistants, and some areas of research have been put on hold.

The Colorado School of Mines has weathered the financial storm a little better than most because it gets 40 percent of its research dollars from private industry. But others, such as the University of Colorado Boulder and the University…