The University recently began to receive research funding through the federal stimulus package, which will ultimately total nearly 10 percent of the year’s research funding.

The University had received more than $38 million in stimulus research funding as of last week, and though it does not have its final totals yet, Jeff Blank, assistant vice president for research, said it has “probably received another $10 million in the past 10 days.”

The total in funding for this year and next year will come close to $50 million, distributed through 100 to 110 separate awards, Blank said.

He added that the majority of the funds are from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, which is distributing about two-thirds of the funding.

The agencies had several different methods to distribute the funds.

The NSF and the NIH both established new grant programs, soliciting applications that are subjected to a peer review process before making awards, Blank said.

The agencies also have supplemented funding for current research, such as providing funds to continue research for a year in addition to the original time frame, Blank added. The third method of stimulus fund distribution is through reach-back awards, when agencies fund researchers who were originally not supported.

“They [the Obama administration] wanted to make sure that it was very transparent and very fair,” Blank said, “and that’s why they wanted to make sure that a pretty strenuous review process was in case for these funds to be allocated.”

He noted that this also results in a stricter reporting process, including a quarterly report updating the federal government about how funds have been used and what jobs were created and retained.
“This is a stimulus bill,” Blank said. “It’s all about economic development and getting people new jobs and keeping current jobs.”

He described the research stimulus funds as “an economic development engine for the country,” explaining that the funding could have a ripple effect in the equipment being purchased across the country, the materials used to build the equipment and the supplies being purchased.

The research stimulus is “having the effect that the [Obama] administration intended in that it is stimulating opportunities for jobs,” Blank said, as well as funding research. The funds are being awarded across all the research departments at the University, he added.

“It’s in Engineering, it’s in the College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing,” Blank said. “It’s everything from studying cancer research to looking at how the solar system was formed.”

Asst. Astronomy Prof. Philip Arras has received federal stimulus funding for his research on extrasolar planets. Arras said he first submitted a grant proposal to the NSF, learning later that it was funded through stimulus money.

“I think it’s just they had extra money and so they funded a proposal that maybe would not have been funded if it wasn’t for that,” he said.

Arras will use the funding to create physical models of planets orbiting stars other than the sun to determine “how heating by star light affects atmosphere on the planet and how you can probe that with observations by telescope,” he said.

Physics Prof. Thomas Gallagher is another recipient of federal stimulus funding. The stimulus funding will support his research bridging the classical and the quantum mechanical, working to connect these two points of view — “which classical things can you really do with an atom,” Gallagher explained.

The Nursing School’s Rural Health Care Research Center also has received research stimulus funding, said Beth Merwin, associate dean for research at the Nursing School. The school applied for and received stimulus funding to support a student internship at the Rural Health Center, providing for five interns during summer 2009 and eight to 10 during summer 2010.

More recently, the Nursing School received funding that will enable it to upgrade and obtain more laptop computers for both the Rural Health Care Research Center and the Center for Nursing Research, she said.

Merwin added that the strict reporting process required by the federal government will not interfere with research, noting that the quarterly reports are less in-depth than the annual reports.

“We’re very grateful to have the funding, and it is certainly well worth providing whatever information is requested on a quarterly basis,” she said.

Though the University will benefit from the influx of research funding, Blank said there is no expectation for funding to continue at this level.

“It’s really just a one time investment over two years,” he said, noting that the Obama administration has been very clear that the purpose is only to stimulate the economy.

“This is a historically unique opportunity for research funding and U.Va is [well] poised … to strategically access the funds,” Blank said. “Fortunately our strategic priorities have aligned well with the funding agencies with stimulus and we’re starting to reap those benefits right now.”

The University’s Nursing School was chosen as a recipient because of its “high standards,” Nursing School Ph.D. Director Barbara Parker said. Photo by Iram Shaikh.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the University’s Nursing School a $500,000 “Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need” grant to help establish a new fellowship program for the school’s future doctoral candidates.

GAANN seeks to provide financial assistance to doctoral candidates through the creation of fellowship programs in areas that are facing national shortages, such as biology, chemistry, engineering and nursing, according to the GAANN grant program’s Web site.

Nursing School Ph.D. Director Barbara Parker said the Nursing School was selected as a recipient of the grant money because of the school’s high standards.

“We were able to document a high success rate in student attrition [and] we have high standards of [admission],” she said, adding that the Nursing School also graduates its doctoral students in a more timely manner compared to other schools. “The [Nursing] Ph.D. program at U.Va. is very highly respected nationally and internationally.”

The Nursing School will use the $500,000 grant to create three new scholarships during the next three years, Parker said. The need-based fellowships will provide students with funds for tuition, a stipend and money needed for other educational purposes, such as a computer and travel expenses.

Nursing School Communications Director Dory Hulse said faculty members will award the fellowship to students who have already been accepted in the Ph.D. program based on their academic qualifications, whether they come from an underrepresented background in the nursing field, documented financial need and their commitment to teaching.

Nursing School faculty also hope the fellowship program will help lessen the shortage in nursing faculty that currently plagues many schools across the country.

“We have a nursing faculty shortage and it’s going to be hard [to train new nurses] if we don’t have the folks to teach them,” Hulse said.

The fellowships may also help fill the shortage in nursing faculty at a quicker pace, Hulse said. Because the students that receive the fellowship will not have to worry about the financial burdens of school, they may be able to graduate from the program faster than those who must worry about financing their education.

“These students will hopefully finish the program sooner and enter faculty positions,” Parker said.

The Office of Emergency Preparedness released an online training module last week that all University employees are expected to complete, in response to an executive order from Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

In Executive Order 44, Kaine decreed that all agencies of the commonwealth place a greater emphasis on emergency preparedness.

“I hereby direct all executive branch agencies, including institutions of higher education, to include emergency preparedness planning, training and promotion as a core component of their mission,” the order states.

Marge Sidebottom, director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness, said the new module was created in response to Kaine’s order.

“What we did was create something that we believed would speak to the requirement of a Terrorism Awareness Course, as well as emergency preparedness,” Sidebottom said. “We wanted to make sure the module expressed the fact that emergency preparedness is everyone’s responsibility.”

Sidebottom said the training program should ensure that all employees will be prepared to handle emergency situations, from weather-related disasters to hazardous materials. She also noted that it will ensure that employees are safe both on Grounds and in their own homes.

“This is a beginning,” she said. “People need to be aware of what they can do to keep their environment safe.”

Leonard Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer, similarly noted the importance of the training module to University employees.

“The module ensures employees have a general understanding of the importance of emergency preparedness in all that we do,” Sandridge said. “Without a general understanding of ways to be prepared for the unexpected, our employees will be at a disadvantage.”

The training is not expected to take more than 20 to 30 minutes and includes links to printable resources, Sidebottom said. University employees are expected to complete the training by Dec. 1.