I am pleased to update you on the NHLBI's planning and implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).  I want to share with you how energized we are with this opportunity.  The investment of ARRA monies in the NHLBI allows us the unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the implementation of the NHLBI Strategic Plan: Shaping the Future for Research and to stimulate the economy.

The NHLBI intends to invest its ARRA funding in research that advances basic discoveries of the causes of diseases, promotes the translation of the basic discoveries into clinical practice, and fosters training and mentoring of emerging scientists and physicians. The funding plan strikes an important balance between our commitment to investigator-initiated research grants and "signature" projects.

A section of our website is dedicated to providing detailed information about the NHLBI's participation in the ARRA, http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/recovery . On these pages, you will find information on the funding mechanisms as well as two useful tools, the Frequently Asked Questions section and Milestone Changes to the NHLBI's Recovery Pages , which is a log of updates to the ARRA-related web pages.  As new information becomes available, we will update these pages and therefore encourage you to check back periodically.

I look forward to continuing our work together during this historic opportunity.  We welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions at nhlbi.listens@nih.gov .

An Archive of the current and past issues is available on the NHLBI Web site.