Lisa's points are well taken.  We at CUNY are reeling from our state and local
budget cuts.  My institution with a relatively small volume of grants has
decided to curtail the Grants Office and cease encouraging faculty to apply for
outside support.  Seems short sighted, but given our inability to participate
in even minimal cost sharing and the fees imposed by our Research Foundation,
it's an area where costs can be cut without much consequence - an impressively
objective statement considering that I'll be unemployed by the end of June.
News of similar cuts in other CUNY grants offices is starting to surface.
Combine these dynamics with what the Feds are doing in places like the
Endowments and most of the grant making departments, and the result can
only be contraction in this industry.  My prediction is that in a few years
only the major research institutions will maintain viable sponsored operations.
It's less a question of whether smaller institutions will be competitve. Rather
more and more instituions will have to face the question of how cost effective
it will be to participate in sponsored projects activities.  With pressures to
cut indirect costs and more emphasis on cost sharing, the break even point
will start to move further away.
Andrew Grant
Baruch College/CUNY