On the profound ripple effect of administrative support across climate resilience research during difficult times
Federal funding for climate research has been cut dramatically since the beginning of this year, and the federal landscape continues to be precarious. In the face of this uncertainty, Grants Manager Becca Hart and the entire EarthLab finance and administration team has stepped into a critical role in our shared services network — helping researchers rapidly pivot, find new resources, and keep vital environmental justice work alive.
We spoke with Becca about the impact of federal funding cuts on her work with member organizations, and why administrative support has profound ripple effects across climate resilience efforts, especially during difficult times.
Describe your role in one sentence.
My role is to be the bridge, or the shield, or the filter — depending on the day — between researchers and the bureaucracy of the UW, state and federal governments.
How long have you been in this role?
I’ve been at EarthLab for three years. I started as a grants specialist for one member organization, and then became a grants manager supporting several member organizations.
How many researchers do you currently support?
I support eight principal investigators, who lead research projects, and the scientists working on their teams. The finance and administration team supported nineteen principal investigators and a total of more than 50 scientists across all of our member organizations last year.
How have EarthLab member organizations been impacted by federal funding cuts? And what does it look like to lose federal funding?
Two of our member organizations have lost federal funding since February 2025. When a team loses federal funding, they receive an email notifying them that their award is being terminated. This means the work has to stop immediately. The impact of losing funding then goes out in ripples. One member organization had to lay off two positions, which was really difficult to see and had the most immediate impact. Sadly, the termination also ended funding for our partners and collaborators, creating a setback to them continuing this work.
Beyond the funding that has been cut, there’s a lot of uncertainty. With the grants we do have, there’s a question of how long we will have them for.
How are you and the researchers you support responding to these challenges?
In the case of one member organization, just a couple weeks after their award was terminated they found another opportunity that could support components of their work. They only had one week or so to submit the proposal, so it was a bit of a “drop everything” moment to get it completed.
While they got the scientific aspects of the proposal together, my role was to get all of the administrative pieces together so the proposal could get in as quickly and smoothly as possible.
What are the administrative pieces of a proposal that you support?
There are really two areas of administrative work. One is supporting the business elements of the proposal, like the budget and budget justification. Typically, the principal investigator will put together a budget, and the finance and administration team reviews it to make sure all the calculations are correct and that their proposal aligns with the rules and policies of the UW and the funding body.
There are also more relational aspects to proposal writing. I work within the system to make sure we get all the approvals we need from the department, the dean and the Office of Sponsored Programs. Once the principal investigator has given their approval to the grant, they shouldn’t have to be part of getting approvals from these other parties, which can involve some back-and-forth.
Tell me more about what this process would look like for a principal investigator if your role didn’t exist.
In some units, investigators have to submit proposals themselves, so they need to make sure all of the compliance elements are completed. The investigators would also be involved in the back-and-forth of getting approvals for the proposal. Our role here at EarthLab takes that responsibility off their plate.
Do you have an estimate of how much time you save for researchers each year?
A simple grant proposal takes around six to eight hours on the administrative side. A more complicated proposal takes longer, sometimes more than 100 hours. It really depends on the type of proposal and how much money, partners and requirements are involved.
Last year we helped member organizations submit 23 proposals. On the whole, we probably save our researchers somewhere between one and two months of work each year on proposals alone.
Do you think this model has been particularly important in the past year?
I do think this model has been important in the last year. There are researchers at the UW who don’t have a dedicated administrative team. So they’re doing all the administrative work in addition to looking for more funding opportunities and navigating the uncertainty around funding.
At EarthLab, when there’s a funding opportunity, it’s “all hands on deck” — we get a team together to go after it. As administrative staff, I’m part of that team. The researchers can hand me things and I will take care of them; they don’t have to worry about getting things through the system and being in compliance. I hope it alleviates some of their stress and saves them time as well. Reducing their administrative burden also gives the scientists more time to spend doing their research and supporting climate action in communities.
It’s easy to blame UW for being complex or frustrating, but following all the rules is critical to the ethical stewardship of funds. It’s also important for keeping our funding, maintaining our reputation and continuing to be eligible for future funding. Having dedicated administrators means we have people who can provide another layer of security around maintaining our compliance. This is more important than ever now, while there is additional scrutiny on federal funding.
What is giving you hope for the future right now?
The researchers at our member organizations. With everything being uncertain, they are still doing this essential work and finding ways to fund it, and that’s giving me hope. I’m very happy to support their work, and I’m always excited when they come up with an opportunity they want to apply for.