Jeff Blank’s work life is being consumed by breaking news — at least since Feb. 17, when President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill carrying billions of dollars in research money.

As the University of Virginia’s assistant vice president for research, Blank’s duties include looking at how the stimulus money is being doled out, and figuring how UVa can capitalize.

“It’s complicated. We’re learning a lot of the details each day,” Blank said.

For UVa, the bottom line is that the stimulus package could result in millions in new federal money to fund new or existing projects for a university that already plans to put more and more emphasis and money into research.

In stimulus-free times, UVa gets a little more than half its research money from two federal agencies, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

By far, the lion’s share of federal research dollars comes from the NIH, which sponsored $344 million in UVa research during fiscal years 2007 and 2008.

But with the NIH getting $10.4 billion in stimulus money, more research money is expected.

That presents some challenges for researchers who may have to tweak or scale back proposals to qualify for the new grants, or extend research that’s already being funded.

And that goes for grant applications to the National Science Foundation, which sponsored $46.5 million worth of UVa research in the prior two fiscal years, and which is receiving $3 billion in stimulus money.

“The [federal] agencies are clear that it’s not a traditional three-, four-, five-year grant ... this is a very small window,” Blank said. “[It will be limited to] what can you do in this small window ... to do good research and get good results that creates jobs and retains jobs.”

Some of the biggest benefactors at UVa will likely be the School of Medicine, School of Engineering & Applied Science and the College of Arts & Sciences. Collectively, the three entities received $156 million in research money from NIH and nearly $23 million from the NSF in fiscal 2008.

UVa officials don’t know how much stimulus money will come the university’s way, in part, because UVa’s research proposals will be going up against those prepared by other researchers eyeballing the same pot of cash. Also, the research proposals will still go through review with each of the federal agencies they apply with.

Barry Johnson, associate dean for research in the engineering school, said the NSF typically approves 10 percent to 15 percent of all grant proposals it receives, although he notes UVa does better than average in acceptances. Johnson is hoping the stimulus will raise the agency’s approval percentage to 25 percent or 30 percent.

He’s also hoping more proposals to the Department of De-fense, which sponsored $11 million of the engineering school’s research in fiscal 2008, will be approved as well.

Roughly half the school’s research money comes from the DOD and the NSF.

Johnson said he thinks projects that have been, or are working their way through, the federal agencies’ months-long review processes and were deemed worthy of funding but were not granted money will likely get a second look. As for new proposals, he said he expects federal agencies will speed up their review processes.

Steven Wasserman is assistant dean for research at the medical school, where NIH funds made up nearly two-thirds of sponsored research in fiscal 2008.

“As NIH goes, the School of Medicine goes, to some extent,” Wasserman said of the NIH, which is receiving stimulus money equal to about 30 percent of its combined average annual budgets over the last five years.

He said that could mean that faculty looking to continue existing research may have an easier time finding money than they have in the past. Also, those proposals already in the review process likely will have a better chance because the NIH can put its funding cutoff further down the list of proposals, he said.

“It’s not often in the bleakest of economic times that something this positive comes along,” he said.

$21.4 million boost

Outside of the research there is also stimulus money going to federal agencies for the president’s much-touted “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects. UVa officials said they are not yet aware of the parameters for applying for those funds.

What is clear is the stimulus will give about $4.8 billion to Virginia, where $126.7 million will be funneled into higher education.

For UVa that means that during the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years there will be a $21.4 million general fund boost that should help make up for most of the cuts made earlier this year as Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and the General Assembly wrestled with closing a $3.9 billion shortfall in the state’s two-year budget.

But the temporary burst is just that — temporary. Colette Sheehy, UVa’s vice president for budget and management, said that if the economy doesn’t rebound, the university could see its state money fall off again in July 2011 when the stimulus wears off.

Sheehy said there is also $219 million in state money that is flexible and available for all Virginia agencies. UVa may apply for some of that money to fund infrastructure projects, although parameters on how the flexible funds will be spent are not completely clear, she said.

It’s also not clear how the general fund money might affect the university’s Board of Visitors’ anticipated discussion next month on whether to raise tuition.

“Believe me, there are many more questions than there are answers,” Sheehy said.