Research Messenger
Vol 3, Issue 4
March 3, 2009
The Stimulus Package and SDSU
On Feb. 17, Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, authorizing a number of federal agencies to inject $787 billion into the American economy over a 19-month period. Sixty percent ($476 B) will be in the form of tax relief and entitlements. Most of the remainder will be devoted to rebuilding America's infrastructure through immediate job creation. Just 2.7% will go toward the longer-term prospect of reawakening America's research portfolio from its six-year coma.
Still, 2.7% of this unfathomably large number is $21.506 billion, or a 37% increase in federal research support injected as a step function. It will be gone by Sept. 30, 2010, and if it works, America will enter a period of relative austerity where the focus will shift from job creation to deficit reduction. Acting quickly, even helping overmatched public servants define their priorities, is critical.
There are at least nine federal agencies, institutes, foundations and endowments through which the funds will be distributed. Faculty in every one of our colleges, save perhaps for the College of Business Administration, have an opportunity that many will not see again. We have been gathering detailed information, offered only in the barest outline below, about where the funds are and how they will be allocated. We are in Washington, D.C. this week, conferring with our lobbyist (Carpi, Clay and Smith) and with our area representatives on strategies for positioning ourselves.
But for now, I want to hear your ideas on how we can harvest our share of this money. We will hold a meeting on March 10, beginning at 4 p.m. in LA4450, during which I will offer details about the funding, the timing and mechanisms of its distribution, and the assistance we and the SDSU Research Foundation can offer in generating proposals. There will be light refreshments, and I encourage you to join us.
The distribution of the $21.506 billion is as follows:
- $10.4 billion (48%) to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), maintaining that institute's position of distributing about half of all federal research dollars. SDSU lives on these funds.
- $4.1 billion (19%) to the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science and for worker training. The total allocation to DOE is $5.6 B, but the remainder is for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) and advanced fossil fuel technology, both laudable, but less germane to SDSU's research interests.
- $3.0 billion (14%) to the National Science Foundation (NSF), breathing renewed life into the hope that the NSF will actually double its budget over seven years, as a petite repetition of NIH's doubling a decade ago.
- $1.2 billion (6%) to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which could interest our ecologists.
- $1.0 billion (5%) to the National Aeronautics and Space Administratoin (NASA), from which we derive little support.
- $0.7 billion (3.5%) to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for healthcare, a possible play for our School of Nursing.
- $0.6 billion (3%) to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); not much here for SDSU.
- $0.2 billion (1%) to the Department of Defense's (DOD) science initiatives, which have advantaged SDSU over the years.
- $0.2 billion (1%) to the Department of Agriculture (USDA); useless to us unless the soil erosion engineers can think creatively.
- $0.1 billion (less than 1%) to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); their scientists rent our Coastal Waters Lab, but research funding has not been forthcoming.
In addition, there will be more than $50 billion for K-12 education, about $5 billion of which will be distributed largely at the discretion of Education Secretary Arne Duncan to reward schools who close the achievement gap between students from wealthy and poor neighborhoods (sounds like City Heights). Also, I understand the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will receive $50 million.
To keep perspective, recall that SDSU's entire annual research portfolio is about $100 million.
Please RSVP to ncrawfor@mail.sdsu.edu on or before March 6 if you plan to attend on March 10. This may be the first of several meetings we hold as procedures for allocating the funds become better defined.
Thomas R. Scott
Vice President for Research
San Diego State University