UT Southwestern Medical Center has been awarded more than $42 million to date for basic and patient-oriented research from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the $787 billion stimulus package President Barack Obama signed into law in February.
UT Southwestern's grants have come from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was allotted $10 billion to distribute through the Recovery Act. Additional grant applications from UT Southwestern are still pending.
The $42 million represents both direct costs - funds that go directly to the researcher - and indirect costs, which go to UT Southwestern to support institutional infrastructure. The total amount reflects funds received in fiscal 2009; many grants allow a two-year period to spend the funds.
As of early October, UT Southwestern faculty are principal investigators on 105 Recovery Act projects (104 through NIH, one through NSF), and two investigators had received Recovery Act funds by virtue of being subcontractors on grants awarded to other institutions. Dr. Perrie Adams, associate dean for research administration at UT Southwestern, said more grants probably will be awarded in the coming weeks and months.
"Even though the funding period for most of these grants is only two years, the hope is that their results ultimately will contribute significantly to patient care, in terms of new treatments or a better understanding of specific diseases," Dr. Adams said. "This funding also allows investigators to gather data that will then allow them to pursue larger, longer-term grants. In addition, for some of our young investigators, getting their ideas funded at this level starts them on the path toward establishing themselves. It's a major asset for leveraging in order to obtain future funding."
The research grants support a wide range of laboratory and patient-centered studies aimed at improving the nation's health, including projects focusing on cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, autism, neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes.
Some examples illustrate the anticipated impact of the grants: