Unemployed scientists rejoice!
From Student Life, Washington University’s student paper:
In March of 2007, Washington University joined other top research institutions in issuing a report to Congress stating that limited funding for science research was having an adverse impact on the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. In a sign of changing times, the University received a $10 million federal research grant this summer to study Alzheimer’s and another $10 million to expand its world-famous study on the genomes of cancer patients.
Science researchers at the University say they are enjoying a spike in federal funding, thanks in large part to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. So far, the University has received around $80 million in stimulus-related research funding, most of it for science. The money comes as a result of some 200 grants the University has received in the last year, culled from more than 900 grants for which University researchers applied.
Federal research dollars have mostly funded projects at the medical school. In June, for example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) extended a five-year, $37 million grant to medical researchers studying biodefense and emerging infectious diseases in the Midwest. The NIH also gave the medical school $19 million to study microbes in the human body and the role they play in health and disease.
