Federal stimulus grants to UC Davis will put some 250 people to work on earthquake safety, new sources of clean energy and West Nile virus control, among dozens of other research projects. So far 53 of the jobs are in place, with the rest expected to come on line in the near future.

UC Davis job numbers were announced Oct. 30 as part of a national report from the White House on initial outcomes from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and are based on an analysis of $69.9 million in stimulus awards the campus had received as of Sept. 30. Overall, UC Davis has submitted more than $500 million in proposals for stimulus funds.

According to the White House report, awards to UC Davis have generated 53 full-time-equivalent positions on campus, ranging from lab technicians to professors.

At least 200 additional employees will be required to carry out research projects funded by the stimulus awards, campus officials say. Further job-creation numbers will be reported to the federal government at the end of the year.

“In addition to creating and preserving jobs in a difficult economy, these grants will support important research in medicine, basic sciences and engineering that will have long-term benefits for the economy of California and the nation — and they will help us to train the next generation of scientists,” said Barry Klein, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

“Moreover, we are optimistic that discoveries made in the course of stimulus-funded research will create new enterprises and additional long-term, sustainable jobs,” Klein said.

Signed into law by President Obama in February, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act charged the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation with distributing $11.2 billion in stimulus funds to scientists around the country.

The program is intended to save or create more than 3.5 million jobs nationwide over the course of two years, while helping to revitalize the nation’s scientific research enterprise.

According to information available online from federal agencies that administer research funding, UC Davis faculty had received 176 stimulus grants worth $69.9 million as of Sept. 30. The projects include:

• $2.3 million to study the spread of tuberculosis, which kills some 1.7 million people worldwide each year
• $2 million to develop a new, more powerful electron microscope
• $1.5 million to the Clinical and Translational Science Center, which focuses on bringing promising medical research to the bedside
• $780,000 for research on building foundations that can withstand earthquakes
• $685,000 for cardiovascular research
• $548,000 for tools for predicting outbreaks of West Nile virus
• $490,000 to study the use of ultrasound in cancer treatment
• $478,000 for influenza virus studies
• $379,000 to explore causes of autism
• $378,000 for engineering and implanting replacement knee joint tissue
• $330,000 for technology that could lead to new materials for storing data
• $240,000 for research on cobalt water-splitting catalysts, a possible source of clean energy
• $206,000 to explore use of virtual reality technology for social-skills training of children with autism

Stimulus funds also are helping to fund a summer program to bring high school and college students, and teachers from schools at all levels, to university labs to learn about stem cells. Stimulus funds also help to pay graduate students studying for doctoral and master’s degrees in science or engineering at UC Davis.

Stimulus funds have significantly boosted research funding the campus receives from established government and philanthropic channels. Support from external sources has more than doubled from $299 million in 2000-01 to $622 million for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The stimulus program requires quarterly reporting by grant recipients of estimated jobs created. For the first quarterly report, due Sept. 30, UC Davis used payroll records to calculate jobs supported by stimulus funds. That calculation yielded an estimate of 53 full-time-equivalent positions in place. The estimate of an additional 200 jobs is based on analysis of the budgets of awards received, many of which have not yet shown up in the payroll system.

“The payroll count method is transparent, verifiable and accurate, while the budget estimate gives a realistic picture of the expected job count from funds received to date,” Klein said.

He noted, however, that calculation methods are not yet uniform nationally, or even within the UC system.