U.S. Navy Cancels $1.5 Million Cognition Grant as It Shifts From Basic to Applied Research
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jul 10
U.S. Navy Cancels $1.5 Million Cognition Grant as It Shifts From Basic to Applied Research
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jul 10
Summary
Jessica Cantlon said the Navy canceled her $1.5 million grant halfway through a project testing whether nine weeks of training could improve spatial reasoning and mathematical thinking.
The cut came after the department closed the broader attention control program and told researchers it was moving priorities away from basic research toward more applied work.
Cantlon said her team had completed only about two-thirds of the f.M.R.I. scans, had early signs the training worked, and had not yet finished analyzing the data.
The cancellation wiped out about one-third of the project’s total funding and forced the lab to seek replacement support for a postdoctoral researcher, technician and graduate student.
Cantlon said the lost work could slow future breakthroughs because applied science depends on basic research to generate new discoveries.