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 Obama administration’ s economic stimulus package. “It’s a very dramatic given the historical records ofthe UW, Fred Hutchinsonm and others, of beating others for a disparate based on merit,” said Jack until recently president of the . “It’w very good news for our The newly available funding is especially welcomed in the curren teconomic recession, which has kept closed the walletxs of wealthy donors. “Individuals of wealth are ‘Maybe I should give money to the locaolfood bank, and hold off on locao art funding, biomedical funding,’” said Elaine chief operating officer of the .
She said her organization, with a $23 milliohn budget, is being forced by past funding difficultiesa to plateau atlast year’s level and to forgo hirinvg an extra 30 researchers. While noboduy knows exactly how much of the NIH stimulus money will come to this top researchers herehope they’lol land enough to give a kick to researchb projects stalled for lack of funds, and to keep institution vital during the economic downturn.
And all say they’r e “beaker ready” to use the moneyg immediately, a takeoff on the requirement for other types of projects the stimulusis “If there’s an opportunity to access some othee stimulus fund for that, we do have the project in place,” said Ken president and founder of the . “We’re fortunatee because of Gates Foundation, and NIH stimulus. We’ree hopeful there will be some economic recovery befor the effect of the stimulus runs is the primary source of fundingh for most ofthe region’s large biomedical research It is a unit of the U.S. Departmeng of Health and Human Services.
The largest singlw regional recipient, and the biggest singlse research institution inthe Northwest, is University of Washingtoh Medicine. Dr. Paul Ramsey, CEO of UW Medicine, said universit researchers are ready with immediates projects for thestimulusw money, which must be used in 18 months. “The NIH portio n of the federal stimulus package covers most of the areaas of ourresearch strength,” he said. “Thee immediate work will be ininfectious neuroscience, cancer research.” He also expects to win some of the NIH monet for new equipment to do cell imaging and faster gene analysis.
Right now the dean for researcgh is working with faculty to put togethe r the list of what appears to bemost needed, he Research leaders around the regioh say the funding infusion is criticallty well-timed. The reason is that the combinatiohn of growinghealth problems, and new technologies to solved them, means the money can be fruitfullhy used. “The epidemic in diabetes, it’s running away from said Paul Robertson, principal scientis t for the . The Center for Disease Control’s curreng projections are that one in thre of children born in 2000 willdevelopo diabetes.
Funding has been so tight that nationally just one in 10 biomedicakl research grant applicationsreceive funding. “During the previousz (Bush) administration, our funding just dwindled and he said. Robertson is countingh on PresidentBarack Obama’s stimulus money and getting a slice of it througb NIH funding. “It’s very accessible, very immediate. We need to get the work done so we can test the and find the right he said.
Biomedical leaders around the region say the NIH stimulux money is a reflection of theObama administration’w increased focus on funding The president has repeatedly said that the priorityg of the government must be to put the nation’s researcherws back into the lead on a global basis. Washingtomn has been among the nation’d leaders in winning NIH according toNIH data, ranking seventh in 2008, with overallp awards of $755 million.