U-M draws $277M in federal stimulus research grants

The federal stimulus package has turned out to be a good thing for the University of Michigan – $277 million dollars’ worth of good.The university has received about $140 million in each of the last two years in research grants from the feds. This represents a 12-14 percent bump in research expenditures at U-M.”We’re hoping these (federal stimulus-funded) projects will make us more competitive for the existing research grants,” says Lee Katterman, project manager in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Michigan.The university still hopes to maintain this new level of federal research funding, however, that’s still a big hole to fill. Katterman says it’s not easy to predict if there will be a drop-off. “That’s the million-dollar question, you might say,” Katterman says.The funding has created at least 550 jobs at the university, ranging from researchers to professors. Source: Lee Katterman, project manager in the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of MichiganWriter: Jon Zemke