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“At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science.  That support for research is somehow a luxury at a moment defined by necessities.  I fundamentally disagree.  Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been.”

President Barack Obama
Speech at the National Academy of Sciences
April 27, 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the Recovery Act, or the stimulus, provided some $21 billion for scientific research and development, as well as the purchase of scientific equipment and support for science-related construction projects.  This extraordinary investment, proposed by President Obama and enacted by Congress, was a reaffirmation of the essential role that scientific inquiry and discovery must play in both short-term recovery and long-term economic growth.

For more than 65 years, federal investments in research, funded through such agencies as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, NASA, and the Department of Defense, have produced extraordinary inventions and products that have cured disease, revolutionized communications and workplace productivity, made our fighting men and women the best equipped on earth, and made the United States the world’s leading economic power.

Moreover, these investments have made it possible for universities to train the next generation of scientists and engineers.

So it made sense for our nation’s leadership to invest a small but significant portion of the ARRA funds in science.

These investments reflect both of the “R’s” of ARRA – Recovery and Reinvestment.  Right now, they are creating and securing many jobs in laboratories, at equipment manufacturers, and in construction of new laboratories.  That’s the “Recovery” part of ARRA.

But these investments are even more important as part of the “Reinvestment” that is also essential to the success of ARRA.  The funds allocated to research are part of the reinvestment our nation must make to grow a strong economy that is based on addressing the challenges of the 21st century such as improving the health of our people and people around the world and meeting our energy needs in ways that help us to slow climate change.  This is an economy that will produce well-paying jobs.

Much of the ARRA research investment is directed to specific challenges facing our country.  Following are some examples:

Biomedical research. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) received the largest portion of ARRA research funds -- $10.4 billion.  President Obama visited NIH on September 30 to announce that half of NIH’s Recovery Act funds had been distributed, nearly all of it to university researchers who competed to conduct research for the agency.  Just a few examples of the thousands of research projects supported by these funds are: expanding the Cancer Genome Atlas to sequence the DNA of more than 20 types of cancer; genetic research into heart disease; a large infusion of funds into autism research; funding to determine the genetic bases of psychiatric disorders; and an ambitious effort to reduce HIV transmission in the Bronx and Washington, DC, through an intensive public health program known as “test and treat.”

Energy research. The Department of Energy (DOE) received $36.7 billion in Recovery Act funding, of which $1.6 billion is for programs at the DOE Office of Science and $0.4 billion for the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E).  These investments are helping DOE researchers at universities and the National Laboratories to develop creative new approaches to transforming the global energy landscape while advancing America's technology leadership.  The funds are supporting projects in fields such as particle and plasma physics, biofuels, solar energy, superconductivity, solid state lighting, electricity storage, and materials science.  DOE is also using a portion of the funds to upgrade its scientific facilities.

National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds a wide array of basic research in practically every scientific discipline, and is the primary funder of research in key fields like computer science and mathematics.  NSF received $3 billion in ARRA funds and is using this investment to support thousands of competitively awarded research projects at universities and elsewhere.  The agency also is funding such major initiatives as Expeditions in Computing, which will expand the frontiers of computer science; construction of the Alaska Region Research Vessel; purchase of research instrumentation for laboratories around the country; and the Ocean Observatories Initiative, which will provide a network of undersea sensors that will aid climate and other critical research.

NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration received $1 billion in ARRA funds to support its science, aeronautics, and exploration missions.  These funds are being used to accelerate the development of climate research missions recommended by the National Academies Decadal Survey and to conduct research and development in areas relating to aviation safety, environmental impact mitigation, and the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which is the transformation of air-traffic control from a ground-based to a satellite-based system.

Much of the science funded by the Recovery Act could help the nation and the world solve real-world problems in the next several years – creating a vaccine, advancing alternative fuels, enhancing global communications.  Other research might produce discoveries that lay the foundation for future generations of scientists to cure new deadly diseases, or produce new transportation or computing technologies that we cannot even imagine today.

We can be fairly certain of one thing – that many of the products and technologies that come from this research will fuel the economy and create the high-wage jobs of the future.  That is what the President and the Congress mean by Reinvestment.  And as long as the nation continues to make needed investments in this research, the scientists who work in the laboratories of America’s research universities will continue to study and discover, and to teach the next generation that will continue their work.