Note to faculty: dust off that research proposal you've needed funding for and prepare to tap into the billions of dollars recently made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

That's the message being sent across campus as application deadlines for research-related funding are due as early as April 2009. The amount of available funding through ARRA, President Barack Obama's plan to kickstart the economy and ensure economic well-being in the long term through investments in education and other essential public services, is staggering. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone has more than $10 billion in new funds to award and the National Science Foundation (NSF) has $3 billion.

The State of Vermont will receive $700 million of ARRA's one-time federal appropriation of $53.6 billion through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The U.S. Department of Education will award $48.6 billion of that total to the states to advance educational goals within the K-12 and post-secondary systems. States must use 81.8 percent of the SFSF funds for the support of public elementary, secondary and post-secondary education in excess of FY2008 or FY2009 levels.

In addition to guaranteeing current funding levels and an influx of billions of research dollars, ARRA keeps Pell grants and other forms of financial aid intact. Wendy Koenig, director of federal relations, and Ruth Farrell, interim vice president for research, gave a presentation to about 50 faculty on March 23 explaining how best to position themselves to win funding. Meeting application deadlines is paramount as awards will have a quick turnaround and must be spent quickly. Reporting will also be more stringent and in most cases require quarterly updates rather than annual.

The best place to stay informed about funding is on the Office of Sponsored Programs website.