Penn President Amy Gutmann attended a meeting at the White House this week as an invited guest of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to discuss research funding related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Also in attendance were White House science advisor John Holdren and five other university presidents.
 
“Stimulus funds are generating new knowledge and new jobs: Both are life-saving and putting us on the road to recovery,” said Gutmann. “The Recovery Act has enabled Penn to add 700 new jobs in research and 400 ancillary job opportunities in construction and operations due to stimulus-funded projects.”
 
Penn researchers have secured more than 400 Recovery Act-funded grants worth nearly $200 million, across each of Penn’s 12 schools.  More than $170 million of this funding came from the National Institutes of Health. In 2008, the University brought in about $750 million in sponsored research funding, the majority of it from federal government agencies such as the NIH. More information about the meeting is available at Penn News.