University attracts millions from ARRA

Since President Barack Obama’s stimulus package was passed, the University has received more than $163 million in research funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, funding 288 studies in topics ranging from gene therapy to public education, according to Vice Provost for research Steven Fluharty. Of that total, $137 million has gone to the School of Medicine.

Faculty submitted approximately 1,150 grant applications and more than $800 million in requests to institutions like the National Institutes of Health.

Some of the research awards have yet to be announced. The NIH received $10.4 billion of ARRA’s $21.5 billion and has paid out over half already, according to Fluharty, but other federal agencies like the Department of Defense “have been slower in distributing.”

As soon as the Obama Administration announced this “unprecedented investment in research,” each of the University’s schools began working with the faculty to formulate application strategies and prepare “for the tsunami of grant submissions flowing out of the University,” Fluharty said.

He described the results as “very impressive,” as Penn has “fluctuated between second and fourth place” in total funding from the ARRA bill. This means the University has been performing “as well, maybe somewhat better [than] we normally do” in garnering research funds.

Provost Vincent Price credited the faculty, “who have responded to this challenge with extraordinary energy and imagination,” he wrote in an e-mail.

Associate Vice President of Penn’s Office of Federal Affairs Bill Andresen noted the short- and long-term benefits of the stimulus grants.

The funding “will create and save jobs at Penn and in Philadelphia as we hire researchers and other support personnel to support these grants,” Andresen wrote in an e-mail. “Equally important, this funding will either accelerate existing research projects, or provide opportunities for new research projects that will improve human health, expand our scientific knowledge and improve the quality of life of Americans.”

Although most of the funding went to the Medical School, graduate students were not the only ones who reaped benefits. Undergraduate students were able to partake as well.

Over the summer, Penn received more than $650,000 from ARRA to fund 30 summer research experiences for high school and college students.

The Medical School’s Chief of Gastroenterology Anil Rustgi applied for eight grants in that ARRA category and received all of them.

Rustgi described the experience as “exciting for students and gratifying for them upon receiving” the grants.

Medicine professor Daniel Rader said he was “very lucky” to get all four grants for which he applied, and really enjoyed working with undergraduates.

“They are focused, work hard, ask great questions, and are fun to have around,” he wrote in an e-mail.

College senior Alyssa Yeager, who worked on gene therapy research with Rader and pathology professor James Wilson this summer, echoed the same sentiments.

“I really appreciated being able to personally experience the benefits of the stimulus funding,” she wrote in an e-mail. “These experiences are so important for preparing students for future careers in research.”