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David Boyer is stuck in a waiting game. For more than 18 months, silence from the National Institutes of Health on a crucial grant decision has thrown his research developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease into uncertain territory.

His application received a favorable impact score, the main metric used for NIH funding decisions, so the postdoctoral scholar at UCLA figured he would hear good news by spring of 2025. Instead, he has heard nothing.

Without the funding, he has less to spend on his experiments, which require thousands of dollars worth of materials, including advanced microscopes. In a worst-case scenario, it’s possible he could lose his job if the grant doesn’t come through. 

“It’s really up in the air whether I would be able to continue getting funded,” said Boyer, who is part of UCLA’s Eisenberg Lab. 

Boyer is not alone. Federal funding for scientific research, from agencies such as NIH and the National Science Foundation, has been upended under the Trump administration, with fewer grants being awarded and some existing grants being canceled altogether. Even researchers with stable funding worry that their grants could get suspended or will not be renewed. 

But now, Boyer and other researchers at California universities have some hope that they could get a reprieve — from California voters. 

The University of California is pushing to get a $12 billion state bond on the November ballot that would fund scientific research projects at California universities, research institutes and private companies. In addition to UC and California State University campuses, private universities such as Stanford and the University of Southern California would also be eligible for the bond money.

For the bond to appear on the ballot, the state Legislature first needs to approve Senate Bill 895. The bill’s sponsors include UC and UAW 4811, the union representing 48,000 academic workers at UC, including thousands of researchers.

The bill was approved last week by the Senate and now heads to the Assembly. It must be passed and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom by June 25 to make the ballot.

“As the federal government cuts and destroys scientific funding, as it creates long-term instability and uncertainty, as science has now become a political football in this country, let’s make sure that California retains and expands our leadership in scientific research,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, said on the Senate floor last week just before the vote. Wiener is one of the authors of the bill. 

If passed and approved by voters, the measure would create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would award the grants using “an open, competitive, scientific peer review process,” according to the bill.

The bond would not be a cure-all for research funding if federal spending continues to dwindle. UC alone gets nearly $6 billion annually in federal support for research. 

“There is nobody else who can substitute for research funding on the scale the federal government supplies,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

Still, Atkinson and other proponents of the bond agree that it would benefit researchers in California not to rely so much on the federal government, especially under the Trump administration, which proposed a $5 billion cut to NIH for 2027. Last week, The New York Times reported that NSF had slowed funding to Harvard and other institutions targeted by the White House, though the impact on California campuses is unclear.

Having another potential funding source would be welcome news to Ximena Anleu Gil, a plant biologist at UC Davis who researches how to breed more plants in environmentally friendly ways.

There is one year remaining on the grant that funds Gil’s position in UC Davis’ Meyers Lab. The prospect of not having the funding renewed is stressful for Gil, who is the main provider for her family, which includes her partner and 7-month-old daughter. 

“I’m very scared of what could happen. If I’m laid off, we’re screwed,” Gil said. “But having another source of potential funding, that would already feel like a big relief.”

If voters approve the bond, the legislation requires that priority be given to replacing funding slashed by the federal government. 

In California, 782 grants have been terminated by the federal government since January 2025, according to the website Grant Witness, a project tracking terminations under the Trump administration. 

Most of those grants have been restored under court orders, but dozens remain canceled, including one at UC San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Research that paid for training for undergraduate students. 

Under that grant, students from nearby Hispanic-Serving Institutions, including San Francisco State University, would spend the summer at UCSF doing HIV research. At the end of the summer, the center would hold a symposium where undergraduates present their findings.

The idea was to expose those students to the field and get them interested in HIV research, said Monica Gandhi, director of the center. 

“There are fewer and fewer people going into infectious disease research at a time when infectious diseases are all over,” Gandhi said. “It really just got them excited, and we thought it would help grow our biomedical research workforce in a really important topic.”

If California’s bond goes through, Gandhi said she expects the center would immediately apply for a grant to restart that program. 

Federal funding remains intact for the rest of the AIDS research center, which organizes all HIV research across UCSF. But it’s not clear how long that will be the case. Gandhi said the center is waiting for a formal notice from NIH to apply for a grant renewal, which she said normally would have come by now. 

“There are all these little ways they are making it harder to get funding,” she said. “Having a California-based initiative that isn’t political and will have the grants be judged on their scientific merit would be amazing. And I think it will go a long way.”

EdSource is California’s largest independent newsroom focused on education.

“Alternate budget plan in works after public outcry” (May 28): The article notes the City Council is supporting adding $200,000 to the proposed budget to restore a position devoted to promoting San Diego as a setting for movies and TV (as well as commercials, industrial videos, etc). I completely agree that these efforts bring significant revenues into the city (and county) economies, “One Battle After Another” being the most recent example. From 1976 until 2012, we had the San Diego Film Commission operating autonomously and as a nonprofit, bringing in such high-profile projects as “Top Gun,” “Simon and Simon” and “Anchorman,” to name a few. In 2012, the commission was incorporated into the Tourism Authority and disbanded during severe budget cuts.

Why can’t industries that benefit the most from TV and movie production — like unions, casting agents, production companies, studio facilities, equipment rentals, the Screen Actors Guild or the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences — collectively fund the $200,000 and resurrect the commission?

— Chuck Dunning, La Jolla

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The Taste of Barrio Logan returned this weekend for its 3rd annual event, giving attendees the chance to sample food from more than 30 restaurants across the neighborhood.

For $40, guests received access to food samples, free entry to art and cultural centers, and a free trolley that shuttled visitors from stop to stop throughout the district.

Alexandra Perez Demma, executive director of the Barrio Logan Association, said the event offers more than just food.

“What sets us apart is that you also get free access to art and cultural centers, the Chicano Park Museum, Bread and Salt, the Athenaeum, Quint Gallery, and then you also get a free trolley that takes you around the district as well,” Perez Demma said.

The trolley introduced attendees to both longtime neighborhood favorites and newer businesses. Perez Demma said showcasing those new additions is a key goal of the event.

“We have a lot of new businesses in Barrio Logan and so we really wanna showcase them and, you know, hopefully these are returning customers,” Perez Demma said.

The food tour featured a wide variety of offerings, from drinks and tequila to mole and pasta. One restaurant owner described her menu as rooted in family and migration.

The owner of Brujas Cocina described her food as “comida fronterisa,” or border town food.

“I take all the flavors of my family that they’ve adopted during the migration from where we’re from to San Diego,” she said.

Mario Cassineri, owner of Ciccia Osteria, served pasta with boscaiola sauce.

“With boscaiola sauce, which is a mushroom, our homemade sausage, and a pink sauce and a lot of Parmesan,” Cassineri said.

Cassineri said events like this one give small businesses a chance to connect with the broader community.

“We are a small business and we try to bring something to the community, bring something to the city, and it’s nice for the people to understand what they really can get in a little neighborhood,” Cassineri said.

Attendees gave the food high marks. When asked to rate the experience on a scale of 1 to 10, one attendee did not hesitate.

“I’m gonna say a 9!” she said.

With long lines at nearly every stop, the event may have introduced the neighborhood’s restaurants to a wave of new regulars.

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