Federal stimulus funds bolster Vanderbilt’s research enterprise

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By Bill Snyder
November 6, 2009

Vanderbilt University scientists have received 182 federal “stimulus” grants totaling more than $79 million to support new and existing research projects, buy major equipment and hire additional personnel.

The two-year grants were provided under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Federal Work Study program.

By Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year, the NIH alone had awarded 165 grants, totaling more than $68 million, to 131 principal investigators in the Schools of Medicine and Engineering, the College of Arts & Science and Peabody College.

Forty-six grants were new this year, while the rest continued funding for existing research programs. Three of them were multi-million-dollar “Grand Opportunities” grants, named by the NIH for their potential to have “high, short-term impact” on public health and health care delivery.