A federal appeals court ruled federal funding for embryonic stem cell research at the University of Wisconsin and research centers around the country can resume while an injunction goes through the appeals process.

The appeals court ruled Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s emergency motion to stop the ban met all the requirements to temporarily lift an injunction preventing continued federal funding for stem cell research.

The National Institutes of Health, which distributes all federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, halted funding following an injunction Aug. 23.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia ruled federal funding for stem cell research violated an appropriations rider that prohibits federal funding for the creation or destruction of human embryos.

Obama’s administration immediately filed an emergency motion to stay the injunction, which Lamberth initially rejected but a higher appeals court granted.

Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement Obama is glad funding resumed so research is not threatened.

“President Obama made expansion of stem cell research and the pursuit of groundbreaking treatments and cures a top priority when he took office,” Gibbs said in a statement. “We’re heartened that the court will allow NIH and their grantees to continue moving forward while the appeal is resolved.”

Obama originally expanded federal funding for stem cell research in 2001 in a reversal of President George W. Bush’s executive order during his term that severely limited funding for the practice.

Although these developments allow funding to officially continue, embryonic stem cell research at UW resumed immediately after the appeals court granted Obama’s motion to stay Sept. 9, according to Tim Kamp, a professor at the UW Stem Cell and Regenerative Research Center.

“Business is back to the way it was before the court case,” Kamp said.

The injunction originally halted funding for 22 grants at UW, two of which were scheduled to receive $400,000, according to Marsha Selzer, director of the Waisman Center, at a press conference Sept. 7.

The resumption of funding is only temporary, however, and UW researchers are still waiting for the final decision.

“We’re still sort of in limbo,” Kamp said. “We just don’t know what’s going to happen when the judge finally hears the case.”