Reporter Michelle Breidenbach of the Syracuse, N.Y., Post-Standard considers local academic research being funded by stimulus money and wonders just how much these projects – many of which were turned down previously and selected for stimulus money based partly on timing considerations – are really stimulating the economy. There were no job-creation or buy-American strings attached and, while ostensibly health-related, studies covered such esoteric topics as wild ticks on lab mice and the interaction between marijuana and malt liquor consumption.
With a story localization model that can be applied across the country, Breidenbach used the NIH’s grant-tracking site to check in on stimulus-funded projects getting underway at a number of nearby universities, then contacted researchers and assessed their work’s impact on the local economy and on human knowledge in general.
