ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- University of Michigan Medical School physicians and scientists earned more than $366 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding in federal fiscal year 2009, according to NIH data. In all, the School's faculty brought in more than $435 million in research funding from all sources in U-M fiscal year 2009.
These funds, which researchers must compete for against peers from around the nation, enable U-M scientists and physicians to continue to explore innovative approaches to understanding a wide array of questions germane to health and disease. The work they do with these dollars aims to improve quality of life for all Americans, and serves as an economic engine for the region and an investment in our nation's future.
"We are especially pleased to be able to bring significant funding to Michigan to help build the foundation for the state's long-term economic growth," Woolliscroft said.
In fact, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, for every dollar directly spent by a medical school or teaching hospital, an additional $1.30 is "re-spent" on other businesses or individuals, resulting in a total impact of $2.30 per dollar. That means that as the $435 million in funds from all sources are spent over the next few years, they will have a net benefit on the economy of $1 billion.
The total U-M Medical School NIH award amount comes from 814 different grants. They include research grants that directly support the cost of doing laboratory and clinical studies; clinical cooperative agreements that support multi-center studies of new medical treatments; training grants that fund the graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who play key roles on research teams while pursuing their education; career development awards that help launch young scientists' research; and core grants that support major U-M medical research centers and institutes.
Of the total $366 million in NIH grants awarded to the Medical School in federal fiscal year 2009, $47.5 million were awarded through the federal economic stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The U-M Medical School garnered 8.2 percent of Challenge Grants it submitted to NIH under ARRA, while nationally the Challenge Grant program funded only 4.3 percent of some 20,000 proposals received.
Non-ARRA-related NIH grants for the School totaled $319 million, reflecting a significant increase in awards from NIH base appropriation funding over the prior year. NIH base appropriation funding is longer-term and generally provides more sustainable and predictable funding than ARRA research awards which are limited to two years of funding.
NIH grants make up the vast majority of all research funds to the Medical School. But other funding sources are becoming increasingly important.
The biggest NIH grant to the U-M Medical School is for the Southwest Oncology Group, one of the largest cancer clinical trial cooperatives in the nation, which is housed at and administered by U-M. Another significant NIH award to the Medical School is a Grand Opportunity Grant (awarded through ARRA) that is being used to study idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). This Grand Opportunity grant calls for the development of a new network of 10 clinical centers nationwide to procure biologic samples from patients with suspected IPF and follow 100 patients for at least 45 weeks. Each of the centers involved will have the opportunity to retain and hire a group of employees for the study.
In addition to tracking NIH awards by federal fiscal year, the Medical School also tracks research expenditures by year - a measure of how the grant dollars and other funds are actually spent during the fiscal year. In U-M fiscal year 2009, Medical School research expenditures for all types of sponsors totaled $376.6 million, an increase of 8.6 percent over the prior fiscal year and the largest increase in recent years at the U-M Medical School.
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