Stimulus Adds To NIH Funding Pool | Local researchers pile on the grant apps
The stimulus bill isn’t just funding blacktop, bridges and buildings. It’s also providing more federal dollars for scientific research.
That’s very good news considering that the budget for the National Institutes of Health, which is where much of the research money comes from, has been flat for about five years.
In fact, the funding was so flat that the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center created a young investigator grant program because no funding increases were leading to younger researchers getting edged out of research dollars.
Gap Funding
The stimulus bill is providing $10 billion to the NIH, over and above this year’s budget of $30.5 billion. Of that $10 billion, $200 million will be spent on research that will help fill in knowledge gaps in certain areas.
The agency expects to fund 200 or more grants, each up to $1 million, and it looks like they will have no shortage of applicants to choose from. The agency received 20,000 applications, which is about the same number it gets in one of its major review rounds every year, it said.
Here in the Worcester area, the additional federal funding has led to a lot of work and excitement.
While results won’t be known until August, there’s a lot of confidence here that the research proposals are for important science.
“There was a flurry of activity in April as researchers here in our campus community chose to throw their hats into the ring and take advantage of the additional stimulus research money,” said Tom Keppeler, assistant associate director of public relations for Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton.
Eleven Cummings’ researchers have applied for $7.8 million in grants, with another four researchers applying for almost $1 million to extend existing research, he said.
At the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, 77 researchers have applied for research grants, according to Alison Duffy, spokesman for the school.
WPI researchers have also applied for a number of grants, but the school does not comment on the process until and unless grants are awarded, according to Michael Cohen, a WPI spokesman.
There are 15 categories of research that will be funded if there are promising applications in each one, including biomarker discovery and validation; behavior, behavioral change and prevention; enhancing clinical research; genomics; regenerative medicine; stem cells and science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, also known as STEM education.
Advantage Central Mass.
Of course, categories like genomics and stems cells bode well for the Worcester area, what with UMass Medical being the home of the state’s stem cell bank and registry, and Cummings being home to the biosafety lab funded with federal, state and university dollars.
The research departments of UMass Medical and Cummings held workshops and seminars to help researchers with the process, according to Duffy and Keppeler.
UMass Medical School researchers are excited because worthy research proposals for which there was no money now have a second chance along with new research proposals, Duffy said.
And researchers at Cummings are no different.
“It has infused researchers with so much optimism. We’re not looking at it as we’re one of 20,000 applicants that might or might not get funding,” Keppeler said. “We’re looking at this as a wonderful thing that the federal government has a renewed interest and commitment to funding scientific research.”
Got news for our Biotech Buzz column? Contact WBJ Staff Writer Eileen Kennedy at ekennedy@wbjournal.com.
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