The University of Chicago Research Funding

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009, provides unprecedented opportunity to advance scientific research and discovery for the benefit of the nation.

As of November, 2010, the University of Chicago has received 217 ARRA awards totaling $105.86 million from the Department of Education, Department of Energy, National Endowment for the Arts, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation.

These awards will enable UChicago researchers to intensify efforts to improve outcomes for people with cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening illnesses; find solutions to environmental concerns; develop new analytical techniques that will accelerate the pace of discovery across many disciplines; understand the underpinnings of nature, neurons, racial bias and tackle a host of other important challenges of our time. ARRA funding will also enable the University to retain and recruit researchers, administrators and technicians to support research projects that receive funding.

Since 1892, UChicago researchers have been at the forefront of scientific discovery. Our scientists discovered REM sleep, developed carbon 14 dating and performed the nation's first living-donor liver transplant. They proved that chromosomal defects can lead to cancer, laid the mathematical foundations of genetic evolution, conceived the study of black holes, and executed the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Federal funding has provided the bedrock for these innovations since World War II. In (fiscal year) 2009, UChicago received a record $472 million in sponsored research funding from federal agencies—representing nearly 73 percent of the University's total awards.

These pages provide an overview of ARRA-funded research at UChicago so that Americans can see where their tax dollars are going and learn how their investment in UChicago research will pay off generously now and in the future.