Ohio State highlights benefits of stimulus-funded research

Representatives of the nation's leading public and private research universities – including Caroline Whitacre, vice president for research at The Ohio State University – joined Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress today to announce the launch of ScienceWorksForUS, an initiative to highlight the scientific research and related activities that have been made possible by stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The centerpiece of the initiative is a website, www.scienceworksforus.org/ that highlights Recovery Act-sponsored research in all 50 states, telling the stories of the research and the researchers contributing to America's recovery.

For Ohio State, the ARRA has provided more than $82 million in one-time funding for 174 projects. A new Ohio State ARRA website, www.osu.edu/arra, features a sample of funded projects and other information about how the stimulus funding is powering research at the university.

In remarks during the news conference, Whitacre said "The Reinvestment and Recovery Act has allowed Ohio State to approach important global problems in health care, energy, climate change as well as advances in computing. In these areas we have aggressively partnered with business and industry to spur additional innovation. These are significant investments that provide an opportunity for our faculty and students to be active participants in the economic recovery of the nation."

Nationally, the stimulus program contained $21.5 billion for scientific research, the purchase of capital equipment and science-related construction projects.

"ScienceWorksForUS is highlighting the way Recovery Act funds have made their way into academic laboratories, and reflects what's possible when smart investments in the public sector are placed in the hands of our scientists, innovators, and academies of higher learning," Pelosi said. "Through our ongoing support for researchers across the country, we will ensure that the Recovery Act was not the end of our investment in innovation, but the beginning of a sustained commitment to science."

ScienceWorksForUS is an initiative of the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and The Science Coalition, which collectively represent more than 200 of the nation's leading academic research institutions.