funding

Basically, money. Specifically, in a chemistry grad school context, this usually refers to grant money, including funds that might be used to cover a student’s salary, called a “stipend”.

The “funding” level of a lab refers to their financial health–the money available for the lab to do research now and into the future.

Might also be used to refer to grants, i.e., “I’m applying for NSF funding for my project.”