It's staggering to think that even with the help of a "free" $37 mil, this project is still having to end already. The funding neglect of this kind of important basic research by TPTB is an absolute disgrace.

Hey, at least the DoD "furlough" days are days off... Most of those in the education sector have been dealing with the "furlough" days for a couple of years now (2009/10ish) which are "volunteer" days for us... You don't get paid, but you still have to show up to work, enforceable by disciplinary action.

Although they discussed the potential cost for cloud computing, they didn't directly establish a correlation between the "sequester" and diminished funding for the project... I can only assume that they are not optimistic about getting any more grants in the near future to solve their manpower issues. Surely there are other avenues to acquire funding other than the NIH, or perhaps those left just aren't interested/confident/capable of continuing the back end of the project.

I wish I'd noticed this last week when it was fresh news; this may end up being yet another project where I miss sapphire. I'll be burning full steam in an attempt to squeak in just over the 2-year mark, fingers will be crossed until the badge shows up or the work dries out.