University of Iowa President Sally Mason says federal economic stimulus money is keeping professional and scientific jobs on the Iowa City campus while other campus employment shrinks. Mason says they’ve received over $50-million in stimulus money for research proposals, which she says has kept the workforce strong through “these very, very tough times.”
Mason says that’s good news for now, but the university will be facing what she calls a “cliff“ when research stimulus funding ends. Mason says the worry is what happens when the money goes away as the money was distributed in two and three year grants. Mason credits university researchers with aggressively pursuing federal funds, leading to their success in winning the 52-million dollars for projects.