Cornell’s Ithaca campus has received nearly $100 million for research projects from the federal government’s stimulus package as of Nov. 1. Weill Cornell Medical College received an additional $22 million from the program, as of Oct. 8, the most recent date for which figures for the college are available. The money is funding a wide variety of projects, from tuberculosis research to development of organic semiconductors, and has been responsible for creating or retaining about 194 jobs at Cornell, according to the University.

$100 million is a large addition to Cornell’s research funding. In 2008, the Ithaca campus received a total of about $350 million from external sources, such as the federal government, said Robert Buhrman, senior vice provost for research.

The funding is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law in February to create or sustain jobs and fight the recession. The act includes $17 billion for federal agencies to distribute for research and education, according to Cornell’s “recovery act” website.

According to the website, one hundred and twenty-four awards have been granted to the Ithaca campus, totaling $99.974 million. The funding has created 19 full-time jobs and has retained 75 jobs. Weill Cornell Medical College has received 63 awards, totaling almost $22 million and creating or retaining 100 jobs.

The funding has also created or sustained a broad range of research projects at Cornell.

“We’re doing well in the research area. This funding is very appreciated, and I think it will have a big impact,” Buhrman said.

Almost $19 million has been granted for research at the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory, about $5.2 million of which will help fund a new linear accelerator, according to the University.

Research into how tuberculosis bacteria survives inside human cells received $600,000 from the stimulus, and a process for producing organic semiconductors with greater ease has received $900,000, according to the University.

Buhrman anticipates that the stimulus will bring a 10 to 15 percent increase in research funding within the next five years.

Most of Cornell’s stimulus money must be spent over the next five years, Buhrman said, but the time limit for each individual grant depends on which federal agency supplied the money.

For example, funding from the Department of Energy — which has given Cornell $17 million — must be spent within five years, but funding from the National Institutes of Health must be spent over two years, Buhrman said.

Like most research universities, NIH and the National Science Foundation are Cornell’s biggest sources of funding, he said.

But what happens when the stimulus money runs out five years from now?

“Well, we’ll have less money,” Buhrman said. Cornell’s research funding will depend on the budgets of individual agencies, he said.

Buhrman expects NSF’s budget to see year-to-year increases over the next several years, while NIH’s budget is not likely to rise. Budgets for both federal agencies are determined by Congress each year, so future funding levels can be difficult to predict, he said.

Dianne Miller, Cornell’s director of federal government relations, said her office is working with the rest of the University and with universities throughout the country to determine “how to manage that cliff” when funding from the stimulus program expires.

Research is needed to transition the nation’s economy from manufacturing to high-tech industries, Miller said.

“You can’t build the economy without funding the research … that will take us out of the old economy,” she said.

Miller and Buhrman agreed that it remains unclear how high levels of research funding can be maintained after the stimulus program ends.

But Buhrman expects Cornell to receive additional grants from stimulus money. Although the largest awards have already been distributed, several proposals for Cornell projects are still pending, he said.

Those proposals will fund more research and potentially result in new discoveries.

“We know the work we’re doing here is very good,” Buhrman said.