The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is a Federal public law passed by the 111th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009. This legislation provided an unprecedented level of supplemental funding ($10 billion in total) to the NIH to help stimulate the US economy through the support and advancement of scientific research. While NIH Institutes and Centers had broad flexibility to invest in many types of grant programs, they followed the spirit of the ARRA by funding projects that would stimulate the economy, create or retain jobs, and have the potential for making scientific progress in 2 years. NIAMS received $132.7M from the ARRA. The table below and the chart that follows indicate how these funds were spent by major initiative.
| Funding for NIAMS Projects (dollars in thousands) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| INITIATIVE | DESCRIPTION | NIAMS ARRA FUNDS | % of Total | NIH OD Cofunds |
| New competing projects submitted in response to specific ARRA funding opportunity announcements (FOAs): | ||||
| • Challenge--RC1 | This program supports research on topics that address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research and that will benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds. | $15,486 | 11.7% | $18,755 |
| • Grand Opportunities (GO)--RC2 | This program supports projects that address large, specific biomedical and biobehavioral research endeavors that will benefit from significant 2-year funds. | 40,981 | 30.9% | 17,251 |
| • BRDG-SPAN--RC3 | This program addresses the funding gap between promising research and development and transitioning to the market — often called the "Valley of Death" — by contributing to the critical funding needed by applicants to pursue the next appropriate milestone(s) toward ultimate commercialization. | 799 | ||
| • Five Thematic Areas—RC4 | This program supports projects that address research endeavors in specific areas and that have high, short-term impact and a high likelihood of enabling growth and investment in biomedical research and development, public health, and health care delivery. | 5,636 | 4.2% | 5,803 |
| • Catalyst SBIR—R43 | This program supports applications from small business concerns that propose to accelerate innovation through high risk, high reward research and development that has commercial potential and is relevant to the mission of the NIH. | 100 | ||
| • AREA—R15 | The Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program stimulates research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. AREA grants are intended to support small-scale health-related research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible, domestic institutions. | 830 | ||
| • Faculty Recruitment—P30 | This program supports applications from U.S academic institutions/organizations for the hiring of newly-recruited faculty to develop research projects within the context of Biomedical Core Centers. | 7,850 | 5.9% | |
| Subtotal, ARRA FOAs | 69,953 | 52.7% | 43,538 | |
| Extend the payline or utilize Select Pay to provide funds to previously reviewed applications that were unpaid prior to the ARRA appropriation. | One of the ways NIH implemented the ARRA was to select existing peer-reviewed, meritorious grant applications that could be accomplished in two years or less, met the goals of the ARRA, and met the mission priorities of the Institute. | |||
| • Research Project Grants | 26,570 | 2,806 | ||
| • Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) | 4,232 | |||
| • Centers | 669 | 1,200 | ||
| • Training Grants | 748 | 150 | ||
| Subtotal, Extended payline/select pay | 32,219 | 24.3% | 4,156 | |
| Competing revisions to existing awards | Investigators with active NIH-supported research project grants (including SBIR and STTR) were invited to submit revision applications (formerly termed competitive supplements) to support a significant expansion of the scope or research protocol of approved and funded projects. | 16,636 | 12.5% | 1,372 |
| Administrative supplements | The NIH provided an opportunity for investigators with active NIH research grants to request administrative supplements for the purpose of accelerating the tempo of scientific research on active grants. | 10,423 | 7.9% | 701 |
| Summer supplements to provide research experiences for students and science educators | NIH provided the opportunity for investigators with active NIH research grants to request administrative supplements for summer research experiences. The purpose of this program was to promote job creation; encourage students to seriously pursue research careers in the health related sciences; and provide elementary, middle school, and high school teachers as well as community college faculty and faculty from non-research intensive institutions with short-term research experiences in NIH-funded laboratories. | 683 | 0.5% | 523 |
| R&D; Contract supplement | A contract supplement was awarded to provide x-ray readings from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI). This information, critical for evaluation of potential risk factors for development of disease, substantially enriched the public database. | 966 | 0.7% | 401 |
| Intramural Research | Funds were provided to the Intramural Research Program for purchase of certain equipment items. | 658 | 0.5% | |
| Other | Funds were provided for review of applications in response to ARRA initiatives and other shared assessments. | 1,188 | 0.9% | |
| TOTAL | 132,726 | 100.0% | 50,691 | |