In a year that’s held little good news for budget planners at UC Davis, a steady stream of grants from federal stimulus funds is providing a much-needed cushion for research programs campus-wide.

According to information available online from two federal agencies that administer research funding, as of Sept. 3, UC Davis faculty have garnered 102 research grants totaling nearly $37.2 million.

‘Positive impact’

“At a time when we are very hard-pressed, this stimulus funding will allow us to build up an infrastructure that will serve us well for many years,” said Barry Klein, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis. “And that is precisely the purpose of these awards: to get things under way quickly that will have a long-term positive impact on the stability of the workforce on campus.”

Klein said he expects to see many more stimulus-funded grants flowing to the campus over the coming months. “We have about a half billion dollars of proposals submitted, while only a fraction of stimulus funds have been awarded so far,” he said.

Whatever the final tally, it will significantly boost research funding the campus receives from established government and philanthropic channels. Support from these external sources has steadily climbed from just under $300 million in 2000-01 to just under $600 million for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

While federal regulations prohibit research grants from substituting for budget deficits, Klein said, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants will be saving jobs for faculty and staff.

“Adjunct professors are supported through grant funds, as are research administrators, technicians and staff research associates,” he explained. “And these grants will also create jobs by enabling us to hire graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to participate in the research.”

Benefits of the grants will extend beyond the campus as well, Klein said, pointing out that researchers will be purchasing equipment and supplies with their awards. In addition, grants that support renovation or construction will provide jobs in a diversity of fields.

Grants ‘cover a lot of ground’

Signed into law by President Obama in February, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as ARRA, was designed to save or create more than 3.5 million jobs over the course of two years.

Killing two birds with one stone, the act proposed to create jobs while revitalizing the nation’s scientific research programs, which have been in a decline following half a decade of near-static budget appropriations for such agencies as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The act charged the NIH and NSF with distributing $11.2 billion in stimulus funds to scientists around the country. For months now the agencies have been evaluating thousands of new proposals as well as awarding grants for deserving projects from last year’s grant cycle that went unfunded due to budget shortfalls.

The grants that UC Davis has received target a broad array of projects across the research spectrum.

“These grants really cover a lot of ground,” Klein said. “From the life sciences, to the physical sciences, to engineering, the profile of our recipients reflects a lot of strength across the campus. I congratulate our excellent research community for these successes and for the hard work that’s been put into the proposals.”

More information: www.news.ucdavis.edu