The National Institute of Standards and Technology has granted Georgetown University $6.9 million in stimulus money for the construction of the science building and scientific research, its largest award through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to date.

In an e-mail to the Voice, Associate Dean of the College Ali Whitmer said that construction of the Science Center, which was put on hold until Georgetown could secure enough funding, can now begin in earnest this semester. Some below-ground work had already taken place this fall.

The grant is less than the $15 million Georgetown asked for in its grant proposal in early August, but Whitmer points out that it is not unusual for agencies to grant less than was requested of them.

Georgetown was required to submit both a construction and research element as part of its grant proposal to the NIST, Scott Fleming, the Associate Vice President for Federal Relations, told the Voice in November, so part of the $6.9 million will go toward the creation of the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology in addition to construction.

Photo from Georgetown.edu

Say what you will about the stimulus package’s limited effect on the unemployment rate, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is creating and sustaining jobs on campus at Georgetown University, University News reports.

Since the University began receiving stimulus money, almost 50 professors, scientists, and physicians have received more than $25 million in ARRA funding from the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Health.

According to assistant provost for research Timothy Barbari, the funding is not only allowing current research efforts to continue but is also “creating new positions, primarily for post-doctoral fellows and research scientists.”

A full list of NIH and National Science Foundation grants can be found on their websites.

That headline is a little misleading—due to a quarrel between Clear Channel, the administrators of the SmartBike bike-sharing program, and the City, it’s unlikely that Georgetown will get a SmartBike station any time soon.

Nonetheless, two House Republicans,  Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), are saying that the very idea of providing Georgetown residents with free bicycles was one of the “11 worst pork-barrel projects of the 111th Congress,” according to Fox News.

Kirk and Price don’t have all their facts straight—they allege that the stimulus provided Georgetown with $3 million in funding for bicycle racks, when in fact Georgetown was merely named as one of 40 new SmartBike locations in a $3 million dollar expansion of the program (and the bike racks came with actual bikes)—but something tells me we would have made their worst-of list either way.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) railed against bikes for wealthy Georgetown residents back in March, too, at which time the League of American Bicyclists made an argument for considering bike funding as a “stimulus project.”

What else made this list? “$550,000 for a skateboard park in Pawtucket, R.I.,” “$3.8 million for an urban art trail in Rochester, N.Y.,” and “$500,000 for fish food in Missouri, to help defray the costs for state fish farmers.”

Photo from Flickr user M “Annie” Gaddis.

The current science center

The federal government has not yet denied or approved Georgetown University’s $15 million request for stimulus money to fund construction of the science center, but Ali Whitmer, a dean in the College, said that the outlook is good.

Having submitted the request to the National Institute of Standards and Technology in early August, the University was contacted by NIST earlier this month with a list of clarification questions about their original proposal.

“While there was not any particular indication that we would be getting funding, that’s generally a good sign that we’ve made something of a shortlist,” she said.

Whitmer said that NIST would make its decision sometime in December. She did not have information on requests Georgetown had made of other institutions for construction funding.

Earlier this month, University Spokesperson Julie Green Bataille said that Georgetown was ready to begin construction on the science building as soon as it had secured enough funding.

“We are doing everything we can outside of putting shovels in the ground … to make sure that when we can secure financing, we’re ready to go,” she said.

Scott Fleming, the Associate Vice President for Federal Relations, said that in order for Georgetown to receive funding for construction of the science center, NIST must also approve the “science element” of the University’s proposal, which NIST required it to submit. The proposed institute, called the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, would mostly support research in physics and chemistry.

The total amount of stimulus funding Georgetown has received, and what for, after the jump!

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