Thanks to federal stimulus money, four Wesleyan professors are looking forward to beginning their research projects. Professor of Chemistry Rex Pratt will research enzyme inhibitors and Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Robert Lane will research gene expression. Assistant Professor of Government Erica Chenoweth and Professor of Chemistry Philip Bolton are currently waiting approval of their grant applications.

Both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) have received billions of dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which was signed by President Obama and passed in February. The NSF, which funds approximately 25 percent of university-based research, received $3 billion, and the NIH received over $10 billion. The funding increase aims to encourage job creation while simultaneously advancing scientific research. The money will also be used to fund infrastructure projects.

According to the NSF’s website, the stimulus funding “will go directly to the hands of the nation’s best and brightest researchers at the forefront of promising discoveries” and priority will be issued to “high-risk, high-return” research.

Pratt, who has received funding from the NIH for several years, was quick to acknowledge the significance of the budgetary increase.

“It’s like somebody just tossed a pot of gold out the window,” he said.

Pratt explained that the influx of funding enabled him to hire new workers and to retain research assistants he may have otherwise had to let go.

On average, the NSF awards grants to 11,000 of its 40,000 applicants annually, while the NIH provides funding for 6,000 of its 20,000 applicants. Research proposals are evaluated through an extensive merit review process. Although many proposals receive high marks, only a limited number of projects can be funded due to the budgetary constraints of the agencies.

ARRA’s funding increase allows for both agencies to award more grants. This includes not only those submitted following the enactment of the bill, but also those submitted on or after Oct. 1, 2008.

Last year, Lane submitted a proposal that could not be funded despite its high marks. This year, after revising it, he received a grant.

Bolton, who submitted a proposal to the NIH, hopes to research molecules that regulate gene expression.

“A novel screening approach will be used to find small molecules that selectively modulate gene expression to allow combining the advantages of small molecule pharmaceuticals including cost, oral delivery, crossing the blood brain barrier and long shelf live with the specificity that arises at the gene level by selectively targeting the transcription machinery,” Bolton wrote in an e-mail to The Argus.

Chenoweth, whose proposal is being reviewed by the NSF, intends to both catalog the effects of counterterrorism policies and to compare the success of civil resistance movements.

All of the grants will fund both long-term and short-term projects and last up to five years. Those awarded are expected to begin their research immediately.

“With the funds, [we] are supposed to spend like drunken sailors,” Pratt said.

Recipients are required to submit quarterly progress reports, up from the previous standard of annual progress reports. The Office of the Inspector General has been given $2 million to provide oversight for the projects.

In addition to funding small-scale, university-based research, the NIH and the NSF have awarded grants to businesses, grade schools, non-profit and for-profit organizations.

Coming on Friday, an in-depth feature on Professor Lane’s research.