Federal Stimulus Bill Mostly Benefited Large Research Institutions

A small number of major research universities have gained the lion’s share of $21-billion in federal stimulus money awarded to academe, a Chronicle analysis has found.

Only 109 universities and university systems received more than 70 percent of that sum, which was spread across nearly 2,000 institutions (see table), or about 40 percent of the nation’s 4,500 colleges. About half of the $21-billion took the form of research grants from federal science agencies, and much of the rest came from state fiscal-stabilization funds.

The concentration of the academic stimulus money among research institutions reflected arguments by the Obama administration and others that the spending would help bolster American’s economy over the long term by fostering the development of high-technology businesses. The research universities were well positioned to compete successfully for the science money, with 109 institutions each receiving $50-million or more. But the spending pattern also meant that smaller, needier institutions received far less. The median total among all colleges was about $750,000.

In contrast with the state stabilization money, most of which expires this year, universities are to receive the research money over several years because the science agencies award grants for multiple-year terms.

The $21-billion represented the total of academic projects related to job creation or retention as reported in a federal database, http://www.recovery.gov, that tracks stimulus spending. Some colleges may have received additional amounts of stimulus money not reported there, but federal reporting systems make it difficult to quantify how much. The money was awarded from February 2009, when the stimulus bill was enacted, through the end of 2010.