DeKALB — At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, the Division of Research and Innovation held a meeting in Altgeld Hall, Room 315. The meeting discussed increasing grant funding regulations and complexity in allocating grant funds once given.

Dara Little, associate vice president of research, discussed the changes over the years regarding funding.

“Since 1991, there’s been over 270 new or changed federal regulations that govern research or government funding in some way,” Little said.

While the exact reasoning for the regulations being implemented is unclear, those present at the meeting agreed these regulations make access to research funding more difficult. About 62% of the 270+ regulations that were proposed or changed have occurred within the last 10 years.

“We are tracking this; our organizations are running some modeling to see what type of impact that would have within our institutions,” Little said. “At this point, it’s not something we can perfectly model.” 

While NIU’s total grant funding has doubled within the past 10 years, showing a 70% increase in research funding, the university continues to monitor these potential regulation changes as they could affect funding in the upcoming years.

Richard Mocarski, vice president for research and innovation partnerships, discussed a ‘minibus,’ a legislative package that combines several smaller bills into a large one for congressional consideration, that may affect NIU in the future.

“All we know is that a minibus was passed by the federal government last month, there was language specific to changing the facilities and administration model,” Mocarski said.

This minibus is expected to be implemented on Oct. 1, 2028, prompting discussion between the board members on how these changes could affect future funding.

The next meeting will be from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Feb. 23 in Altgeld Hall, Room 315.