LA JOLLA — One thing that anyone closely associated with a university knows is that research equals dollars. In San Diego, and specifically in La Jolla, that notion hits home. “Research is a business,” said Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor for public programs and dean of extension studies at the University of California, San Diego. “The research community in San Diego represents something like 25 percent of our gross domestic product. That’s real money, real jobs, real spending power. I think it has had a positive effect on the local economy.” Positive effects on the economy are in short supply these days. But as the amount of stimulus funds distributed by the federal government as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) nears $2.4 billion in San Diego County, it is worth a look to see how those funds have affected La Jolla, one of the busiest communities in terms of research. For a community that has been called “recession proof” by some, the area making up the 92037 ZIP code has received substantial awards from the recession bill. According to www.recovery.gov, the total amount awarded to San Diego County has reached $2.39 billion. Of that amount, more than $400 million has been funneled into La Jolla, which has received nothing in the categories of housing, labor, public safety and transportation. It has, however, received 80 percent of the county’s funds for science and technology, with more than $300 million going to that category alone. Of that $300 million, 58 percent has gone to UCSD. But how can spending on research and development create jobs and stimulate a floundering economy? The answer may come from the idea that funding an area of the economy that is not suffering terribly, like scientific research, will allow for greater autonomy and an ability to rebound when the funds stop flowing. Walshok, who has a background in sociology and has studied the effects of public funding on labor and the economy, believes that injecting a large sum of money into an area of the economy where there was none before can create a “temporary tonic,” in other words, putting money where money is used to being put. “There’s this notion of a short-term fix,” she said. “By making $100 million available, you run the risk of creating a sense of artificial security. What happens when you don’t have that $100 million anymore? In some ways, the La Jolla region is less vulnerable than other regions to that. We have this history of increasing the research dollars we get every year. In a community where you have that kind of history, this kind of money can help you continue to be competitive.” Recently, Walshok was involved in a study by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which worked with seven universities that received federal stimulus funds. Dubbed STAR METRICS — Science and Technology for America’s Reinvestment: Measuring the Effect of Research on Innovation, Competitiveness and Science — the study aimed to develop a way to accurately document how federal money gets spent. Because the government has never before had a system that allowed it to follow every stimulus dollar as it makes its way through the economy, the study, Walshok said, has been paramount in determining the best ways to spend federal funds. What was revealed through STAR METRICS, she said, was that university research dollars span beyond professors and graduate students. “Through UCSD research, millions of dollars were spent in places like Utah, Virginia Beach and Arkansas because those places provided useful services,” Walshok said. “What’s important about those purchases is that the people who provide the services and products have jobs.” Through the study, Walshok and her colleagues estimated that in two quarters of 2010, more than 1,000 jobs from off-campus facilities were affected. Those jobs were not necessarily created, she emphasized, but were essentially kept in business due to the orders received from research projects. Walshok also pointed out that, sometimes, research that gets its start by federal money can become self-funding later on — a theory many professors and researchers hope to be true. Gary Firestein, dean of translational medicine at UCSD, said “nothing is guaranteed” when it comes to relying on the generosity of others for your livelihood. Though the grants his colleagues have received have created jobs by way of research positions for graduate students, some say that once ARRA funds run out, those students may no longer be employed. He also said the money received from ARRA may have the potential to stifle future research projects. “If funding from the [National Institutes of Health] stays flat in the future, which it is likely to do, the funding for these projects now will squeeze out other projects,” he said. “If over a two-year period of ARRA funding there are 20 potential projects — but still only funding for five of them — that is not meritorious.” Walshok, though optimistic, said sustaining the flow of research money after ARRA funds expire will take some creativity. “We have such an entrepreneurial spirit in La Jolla. A lot of people went after ARRA funds as a way to launch a new series of activities they anticipate moving forward,” she said. “But honestly, to replace that money in a single year isn’t going to be easy. It will be interesting to watch how our research trajectory goes. It remains to be seen.” Firestein and his colleagues who have benefited from ARRA money appear to be preparing for anything. “It’s hard to imagine a scenario where we don’t have some withdrawal pains from ARRA ending,” he said. “But my suspicion is that UCSD and La Jolla will do much better than most other places.”