A federal funding scheme helped small US biotechnology companies to create and keep jobs in 2010, says a survey. Congress gave US$1 billion to the Qualifying Therapeutic Discovery Project awards in 2009; eligible firms got up to $5 million in tax credits and grants. A poll run by Penn Schoen Berland, a market-research firm based in New York, and sponsored by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington DC, found that the funding helped 226 companies to create about 6 jobs each, and save 7. The awards helped 80% of respondents to survive the economic downturn. Some 29% had been asked to move abroad, but 59% of those said the awards would keep them at home. James Greenwood, head of BIO, says these data will help efforts to extend the scheme.