Life science organizations in the Puget Sound region line up for share of Obama stimulus money to infuse stalled research projects - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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billion from the Obamaa administration’s economic stimulus package. “It’s a very dramaticv increase, given the historical records ofthe UW, Fred Hutchinsonh and others, of beating others for a disparate share, based on merit,” said Jack until recently president of the . “It’s very good news for our The newly available funding is especiallgy welcomed in the currenteconomixc recession, which has kept closed the wallet of wealthy donors. “Individuals of wealth are thinking, ‘Maybes I should give money to the loca lfood bank, and hold off on local art biomedical funding,’” said Elaine chief operating officer of the .
She said her organization, with a $23 millio budget, is being forcef by past funding difficulties to plateau atlast year’d level and to forgo hiring an extra 30 researchers. While nobody knows exactlh how much of the NIH stimuluxs money will come tothis region, top researchere here hope they’ll land enough to give a kick to researcu projects stalled for lack of and to keep institutions vitapl during the economic downturn. And all say they’ree “beaker ready” to use the money immediately, a takeoff on the requirement for other types of projects the stimuluzsis funding.
“If there’s an opportunitt to access some other stimulus fund for we do have the projectsin place,” said Ken Stuart, president and founder of the . “We’r fortunate because of Gates Foundation, and NIH We’re hopeful there will be some economid recovery before the effect of the stimulu sruns out.” is the primary source of fundinvg for most of the region’s large biomedicao research institutions. It is a unit of the U.S. Departmenr of Health and Human Services. The largesf single regional recipient, and the biggesyt single research institution in the is University ofWashington Medicine. Dr.
Paul CEO of UW Medicine, said university researchers are ready with immediatd projects for thestimulus money, which must be used in 18 months. “Thde NIH portion of the federal stimulus package covers most of the areas of ourresearcn strength,” he said. “The immediate work will be in infectiouzs diseases, neuroscience, cancer research.” He also expects to win some of the NIH moneu for new equipment to do cell imaging and faster gene Right now the dean for researchj is working with faculty to put together the list of what appearsa to bemost needed, he Research leaders around the regiomn say the funding infusion is critically well-timed.
The reasom is that the combination of growinghealth problems, and new technologies to solve them, meanas the money can be fruitfully “The epidemic in diabetes, it’s running away from us,” said Paul principal scientist for the . The Centee for Disease Control’s current projections are that one in three of childrebn born in 2000 will develop Funding has been so tight that nationally just one in 10 biomedicalp research grant applicationsreceive funding. “During the previouss (Bush) administration, our funding just dwindles and dwindled,” he said.
Robertsomn is counting on PresidentBarack Obama’s stimulues money and getting a slice of it througy NIH funding. “It’s very accessible, very immediate. We need to get the work done so we can test the and find theright drugs,” he said. Biomedicalo leaders around the region say the NIH stimulus moneu is a reflection of theObama administration’s increasec focus on funding science. The president has repeatedly said that the priorityu of the government must be to putthe nation’x researchers back into the lead on a global basis.
Washingtob has been among the nation’s leaders in winning NIH according to NIH ranking seventhin 2008, with overall awards of $755 million.