NIH opens stimulus coffers to scientists

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now open for business to scientific researchers who want a piece of the stimulus pie, the agency announced Tuesday.

The NIH won $8.2 billion in the recently enacted stimulus bill, $7.4 billion of it expressly intended to fund medical research projects over the next two years. Tuesday’s move by the agency makes the first $1.5 billion of that money available, though nearly all of it would go to building new lab facilities and buying equipment, not actual scientific studies.