A midcoast science lab that has lost $1 million in funding during the second Trump administration hopes that its new expansion will help it secure more private sector funding and make itself less dependent on the federal government.
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay will be celebrating the grand opening of its new expansion next week.
The nonprofit research institute, which studies global ocean health and employs about 115 people, will be cutting the ribbon for the Harold Alfond Center for Ocean Education and Innovation on June 26. The new 25,000-square-foot addition, which will increase the lab’s footprint by 40 percent, will boast new educational laboratories, a forum to host events, breakout spaces and more, according to Deborah Bronk, president, CEO and senior research scientist at Bigelow.
The expansion has come at a precarious time for Bigelow and other scientific research groups across Maine, many of which have seen their federal funding threatened by the drastic cost-cutting measure that Trump has advanced through the new Department of Government Efficiency.
Funding cuts at the National Institute of Health have threatened research grants at places such as Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, which studies topics such as PFAS contaminants and limb and kidney regeneration.
Other federal agencies have targeted Maine specifically as part of a dispute over the state’s transgender athletic policies. They have paused, terminated or threatened to withhold nearly $50 million in funding to its university system.
The cuts have affected Bigelow as well, Bronk said. The lab has lost up to $1 million in grants and contracts. While she’s thankful it hasn’t lost more, the uncertainty for the future is on everyone’s mind. In fact, the new expansion was paid for in part with $12 million in federal funding through the National Institute of Standards and Technology 2023 Construction Grant Program.
“I feel like so much of the public doesn’t really grasp how critical science funding in this country is to our economy, to our military, to our health care system,” Bronk said. “I am just in shock at the destruction of our agencies. They are the envy of the world, and it’s just gut-wrenching, because when you think about what we put into funding as a percentage of our federal budget, it’s small, and yet it underpins everything.”
The cuts have had other impacts as well. Bronk said the lab was recently intending to hire four to six new senior research scientists, who would all have hired other scientists, taken on contracts and worked with students. But the lab had to internally promote only two instead and leave the other positions unfilled, in order to protect its staff and internal funds during this uncertain time.
Bronk said she’d like Bigelow to begin moving toward helping with research on commercial projects, such as linking researchers with entrepreneurs who want to work with algae. Those new kinds of projects could bring additional funding, and Bronk said the new space will make this easier since it has more areas that can be used for commercial work. In the existing lab space, two of the three wings were built with funding from the National Science Foundation, which has limited what types of projects researchers can take on.
Because the new facility will have enough room to host more visitors, Bronk also hopes that it may be able to host small conferences in the future. Until now, presentations have been given in a large hallway, but the expansion will have a 300-seat forum.
The teaching labs in the new expansion will also support Bigelow’s ability to bring in students, whether they be undergraduates, graduate students or K-12 learners.
“We’ve got a whole series of connected microscopes so they can all see similar things and project it up on a screen, and they can learn and have their own equipment in the teaching lab, so they can get some confidence,” Bronk said. “And, you know, break things, because students break things, right?”
In addition to federal funding, the Harold Alfond Center for Ocean Education and Innovation was also paid for with philanthropic gifts, including $8 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation, a $2 million maintenance endowment contributed by an anonymous donor and other gifts totaling $13 million, according to Bigelow.
Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.
