Obama says $5B in grants will aid medical research

[Peacetrain]

AP


BETHESDA, Md. – Calling scientific research a job-creating engine, President Barack Obama heralded $5 billion in new government grants Wednesday to fight cancer, autism and heart disease while boosting the economy.

Obama described the money as crucial to improving public health and helping add jobs to an economy that has seen unemployment surge. Visiting the Bethesda campus of the National Institutes of Health, he said that its projects illustrate the dual goals of the $787 billion economic stimulus bill: rescuing the economy and laying the groundwork for future generations' stability.

[Deja Q]

1. I wonder if it's too late to change the area in which I am educating myself for...

Then again, half the people in the business classes I know of are going into medical assistance. The other half into becoming security guards... I'm going for advertising, design, marketing, and management...

[Peacetrain]

2. I heard through the grapevine..that they are going to do the largest investment in the sciences

since Kennedy invested for the moon shot.. woo hoo.

Hey management and design for products produced is going to be needed also
;)

[invictus]

3. Who receives these grants? Corporations?

[Nancy Waterman]

4. This was a mistake

Obama was at NIH today to thank them for all the hard work getting the stimulus money out the door by October 1. It was originally reported as a further $5 Billion, but that was not so.

The money is awarded to independent researchers, often affiliated with universities. I don't think it goes to corporations at all. They write a grant proposal and it gets reviewed by independent MD's and Phd's in the field as to whether it is a well-thought out study and can add something to the field.

[moc]

5. I got one of these grants.

Notice of award came yesterday.:o

[greymattermom]

6. Me too.

Came in mid August.

[moc]

7. How are you handling the reporting requirements?

Just got an email from one of the post-award staff that told me they have to submit weekly expenditure reports to the state on top of the quarterly reports to the feds. Oh my. What's also weird is we submitted a 2 year budget, but they awarded a 23 month project term but the 24m $$. With no cost extensions disallowed, I have to bring on staff lickety split and get this project off the ground. We've known this was probably coming since June or so and definitely coming since mid-August, but they didn't get us the NOA until yesterday. It's exciting as we've been wanting to launch this project full-fledge for a couple of years, but the pace is going to be insane. Thank god I'm not teaching this semester.

Congrats, btw. :-)