What a wonderful day for biomedical research, and what a privilege it is for the NIH both to create jobs and to fund excellent science. To President Obama, the 111th US Congress, and the American people, thank you. We are truly grateful to be part of such a historic effort.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) gives a total of $10.4 billion to the National Institutes of Health that we will need to expend by September 2010. $8.2 billion of this will be devoted to research funding. $1 billion is allocated to construction and renovation of extramural research facilities and another $300 million goes to the acquisition of shared instrumentation and other capital research equipment.

NIH is quickly addressing how it will most effectively spend the $10.4 billion designated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to promote science, bolster the economy, and create or retain jobs in as transparent a manner as possible. Within the parameters of the legislation, NIH expects to allocate resources across several major activities, including the awarding of recently peer-reviewed, highly meritorious R01 applications, new R01 and other activity codes that have a reasonable expectation of making progress within two years, competitive supplements to expand the scope of current research or support additional infrastructure, non-competitive supplements to accelerate the tempo of on-going science, the new NIH Challenge Grant program, and other funding mechanisms as appropriate.

Looking for funding opportunities through the Recovery Act? NIH has created a Web site that consolidates Recovery Act-specific initiatives for your convenience. These opportunities, also published on Grants.gov and in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, can be easily identified by the titles that begin with “Recovery Act.” The following initiatives have already been published. More will be coming in the near future.

Budget data, award reports, and analyses of NIH funding activities for Fiscal Year 2008 are now available through RePORT. Here you can also find detailed funding information for 215 major research areas supported by NIH during the fiscal year of 2008.

Learning more about projects already funded by NIH can be a great help when you are preparing your grant proposal. Using the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT), you can craft a comprehensive search of all NIH funding activities according to your specific interests. This search will result in a list of funded projects, for each of which you will be able to view an abstract and statement of public health relevance, as well as contact information for the project's PI.