New Website Tracks $21 Billion in Stimulus Dollars for Science

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 11.18.2009 at 3:29 pm 6 Comments

Federal Funds Hey, scientists need stimulus funds too via ScienceWorksForUS.com

In 2009, science got a hefty shot in the arm from the federal government's stimulus spending. Now U.S. citizens can see exactly how their taxpayer dollars go toward funding video games that test autism responses, or discovering lakes hidden beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) devoted $21 billion toward scientific research and development, as well as science-related construction and the purchase of scientific equipment. The new website provides a clickable map that breaks down that science funding by state: top recipients include California with more than $1 billion, New York with almost $614 million and Illinois with $555 million.

Among the federal science agencies, the National Institutes of Health received the largest share by far with $10.4 billion. The National Science Foundation took $3 billion, and NASA received $1 billion for its space exploration efforts.

The Department of Energy alone received $36.7 billion, with $1.6 billion going toward the DOE Office of Science. Another $400 million of the DOE funding went to the new ARPA-E agency modeled on the Pentagon's mad science agency DARPA.

We invite PopSci readers to uncover quirky or interesting projects that are getting taxpayer funding, and share them here.

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6 Comments

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aerosphere

11/18/09 at 3:51 pm

That is ridiculous

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Cookiees453

11/18/09 at 6:37 pm

During the Vietnam War the U.S. created money because we needed it, once the war ended the money disappeared. We probably did some of this via the stimulus package. I'm happy though that science got money, scientific research is very important.

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Azorus

11/19/09 at 3:27 am

Isn't that nice the science are always being left out, it's about time they got something.(a try from life of brian)

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Business plan

11/19/09 at 3:36 am

Hi,
I agree with Azorus. I like your post you have shared good insights and experiences. Thanks for sharing the good work and keep posting in future too.

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uncleiroh13

11/19/09 at 12:48 pm

this is cool but how is it useful?

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aerosphere

04/17/13 at 4:39 pm

You know what, that's actually pretty cool. Science is important. Although I'm not a big fan of other stimulus packages, Science is worth funding.

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