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Duke University has reached $200 million in grants from the federal stimulus package, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). According to a Duke University press release, through the end of September Duke had won 360 competitive grants for research and construction totaling $202 million from seven federal agencies. Of course, the lion's share of this money has gone to Duke's hospitals, Duke's Schools of Medicine and Nursing account for $166.3 million of the total.

Duke established a team of four grant administrators to help process more than 1,100 ARRA applications rapidly, and set up special websites and a phone hotline to answer faculty questions.

Duke continues to bring money to Durham. The press release quoted James Siedow, Duke's vice provost for research, "The stimulus funds are doing two things. Near-term, it's about creating jobs and economic activity. Longer term, academic R&D is an investment in American competitiveness." For example, one of the grants awarded $718,000 to Duke to set up a new research center and hire two new faculty to study the biology and culture of addiction and how it might be addressed through public policy. The Department of Energy has given David Beratan's work on solar fuels and next-generation photovoltaics one year of support at $210,000. Computer scientist Jeffrey Chase has received four years of support from the National Science Foundation ($627,000) to improve the reliability and trustworthiness of "cloud computing."

Good things are percolating at Duke.

Labels: Durham, economics, technology