UW News

July 23, 2009

UW study of midlife cognitive changes, services for the blind benefit from federal stimulus money

Editor’s note: Federal stimulus money is starting to be distributed. University Week will keep readers up to date with periodic reports on where such funding is being received at the UW.

As of July 13, the UW has received 48 grant awards from federal stimulus act signed into law this past February. The awards total $19.7 million.

It may be too soon, however, to know whether the UW will receive the $250 million to $300 million University administrators have predicted based on past market share. The National Institutes of Health, one of the main funders, has awarded only 5 percent of its stimulus money. NIH will hand out only half that money in fiscal 2009, the rest in fiscal 2010.

The National Science Foundation has awarded 25 percent of its stimulus funds, and the UW is running ahead of predictions for the NSF money, said Mary Lidstrom, vice provost for research. As of early July, she said, “we had more awards than any other university.”

Responding to the stimulus act, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the UW has submitted 1,107 proposals totaling $828 million.

The latest round of NIH funding includes a study on midlife changes in cognitive ability. Sherry L. Willis, a research professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, received $131,000 for the project, which builds on the Seattle Longitudinal Study on the aging process. Willis will examine whether cognitive status and changes in midlife predict rate of subsequent decline. Stability is the norm for most mental abilities in midlife, but longitudinal studies show that adults who decline in some abilities may be at higher risk for accelerated decline in old age. As a summer supplement, said Willis, the new money allows her to involve psychology undergraduates in analyzing neurological imaging data.

The UW awards also include $1.5 million for the Services for the Blind Independent Living Project, about half of which is from ARRA. Kurt Johnson, a UW professor of rehabilitation medicine, and his UW group have contracted with the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind to manage a program for seniors. They will develop a training curriculum for new service providers who provide daily living skills training, adjustment counseling, and adaptive devices such as electronic magnifiers to individuals over the age of 55 with blindness or low vision. The program will also provide demonstrations and short-term loans of adaptive devices to assist clients in making decisions about the technology that will best meet their needs.

About 128,000 people in Washington State are potentially eligible for services from the Older Blind Independent Living Program, but funding is in short supply, Johnson said. “This is a unique opportunity for the UW to collaborate with a state agency, to use the resources of the University to help blind seniors live independently.”

For more information on stimulus money at the UW, go here.