In an Era of Tighter Budgets, Researchers Find Tenure Without Grants
It’s long been a rite of passage at major research universities: To have a chance at tenure, scientists first need to win at least one full-size federal grant. Now that’s changing. Though they’re reluctant to discuss details, several large research universities admit that they’ve begun granting tenure to faculty members who haven’t yet crossed that threshold, a concession to several years of flat federal support for science. Faculty members still are expected to demonstrate independent research activity, says Gary K. Ostrander, vice president for research at Florida State University. "That by definition has historically required that you secure competitive federal funding," he says. "Right now, that is not always happening."