Faculty in the University of Florida’s Health Science Center submitted some 400 grant applications for federal economic stimulus funds, a process that paid off when the National Institutes of Health announced its first batch of awards this fall. UF health professors landed 75 grants worth $72.1 million for this fiscal year and next:

• UF’s College of Medicine won $61.7 million for both the Gainesville and Jacksonville campuses
• College of Public Health, $5.4 million
• College of Dentistry, $2.2 million
• College of Pharmacy, $1.6 million
• College of Veterinary Medicine, $1.2 million

Dr. Marco Pahor won a $29.5-million award for the first two years of a six-year study known as LIFE: Lifestyle Intervention and Independence for Elders. At $64.4 million, the full six-year award from the National Institute on Aging is the largest NIH grant in UF’s history. It tests the hypothesis that physical exercise can reduce immobility in the elderly. "We all know that physical activity is good for our health, but the definitive evidence whether it can prevent disability in older people — whether you can prevent them from being unable to walk — is lacking," Pahor says.