Autism researchers among recipients of $5 billion in NIH stimulus grants

Washington The National Institutes of Health has awarded the first $5 billion of its $10.4 billion available from the most recent federal stimulus package.

The first installment is funding more than 12,000 grants, with recipients including 1,800 researchers who had never received a major NIH award before, Director Francis Collins MD, PhD, announced Sept. 30.

The institute received more than 20,000 grant applications, and thousands of NIH employees worked with more than 15,000 volunteer reviewers to sort through them, Dr. Collins said.

In a few months, NIH awarded about as many grants as it would in a normal year, said Mark O. Lively, PhD, president of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology and a professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. "It truly was a remarkable summer."

Most of the awards are likely expansions or continuations of existing research, Lively said. In North Carolina, for example, NIH-funded research will tackle cancer, heart disease, sickle cell disease and other major conditions. "They basically boosted a lot of the existing grant portfolio," he said.

President Obama, speaking at NIH on Sept. 30, noted the awards include a significant investment in autism research. A complete list of NIH grants funded by the stimulus act is available online (link).

The stimulus package has detractors. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R, Ohio) noted on Sept. 18 that unemployment has continued to increase since Congress adopted the stimulus act in February, despite the Obama administration's stated goal of keeping the figure below 8%. Unemployment reached 9.8% in September, up from 9.4% in July.

But Obama said the stimulus is not just about spurring immediate employment. "It's about creating jobs that will make a lasting difference for our future."