Jun 25, 2023
Facing inflation: lab heads tighten supplies budgets
Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana. You can also search
Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana.
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
As the costs of fuel, groceries and housing surge around the world, scientists are fighting inflation at the bench. Reagents, gloves, pipette tips, microscopes and almost every other item needed to conduct science are more expensive than they were just a year ago. And that means that nearly every researcher is feeling the pressure. "Nobody is immune to this economy," says Tola Olorunnisola, who leads innovation in lab and clinical services at Avantor, an international science-management company in Radnor, Pennsylvania. In late 2022, Olorunnisola visited labs in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland to help researchers facing a cash crunch find ways to stretch their budgets. "Scientists are becoming more conscious of costs," she says.
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Get just this article for as long as you need it
$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Nature 613, 601-602 (2023)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00088-z
Correction 12 April 2023: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that Livia Guadaim is an employee of LATM Life Science. She is, in fact, a Brazil-based employee of Merck in Darmstadt, Germany.
‘Does anyone have any of these?’: Lab-supply shortages strike amid global pandemic
UK graduate students demand pay rise from nation's largest research funder
How going green can raise cash for your lab
Tanzania's researchers offered US$22,000 to publish in international journals
News 06 JUN 23
When a loved one dies: how academia can support bereaved colleagues
Career Feature 05 JUN 23
Scientific utopias: scientific enlightenment in the Stupid Questions Office
Career Column 05 JUN 23
Tanzania's researchers offered US$22,000 to publish in international journals
News 06 JUN 23
How the US debt-ceiling crisis could cost science for years to come
News 22 MAY 23
Research assessment exercises are necessary — but we need to learn to do them better
Editorial 16 MAY 23
Ghosted in science: how to move on when a potential collaborator suddenly stops responding
Career Column 26 MAY 23
How mixing academia and industry opens doors in graduate school and beyond
Career Feature 22 MAY 23
Marine heatwaves: definition duel heats up
Correspondence 16 MAY 23
Based on the joint efforts of all staff and students as well as the substantial support of all sectors of the society.
Beijing, China
College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an executive agency of the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and works on behalf of the S
Addlestone, Surrey
Animal and Plant Health Agency
A cross-disciplinary research organization where cutting-edge science and technology drive the discovery of impactful Insights
Pudong New Area, Shanghai
BeiGene Institute
Located in the eastern part of Nanjing, Nanjing Forestry University is a comprehensive university.
Nanjing, Jiangsu (CN)
Nanjing Forestry University (NFU)
DMPK/PD representative in multi-functional expert teams for the evaluation of new chemical entities
Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
BeiGene Ltd.
613 Correction 12 April 2023