Academy Panel Urges Companies To Help Train Young Bioscientists

Report says biotech firms must pick up the slack to supplement federal funding of the next generation of scientists WASHINGTON -- Biotechnology companies are running out of scientists, and it may be up to industry itself to educate the next generation of biochemists, according to a new report from the National Research Council. The report, funded by the National Institutes of Health at the behest of Congress, recommends that federally supported traineeships and fellowships for biomedical grad

Diana Morgan

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Report says biotech firms must pick up the slack to supplement federal funding of the next generation of scientists

WASHINGTON -- Biotechnology companies are running out of scientists, and it may be up to industry itself to educate the next generation of biochemists, according to a new report from the National Research Council.

The report, funded by the National Institutes of Health at the behest of Congress, recommends that federally supported traineeships and fellowships for biomedical graduate students be increased from the current level of 3,681 positions to 5,200 by 1993.

With the number of biotechnology firms having grown dramatically since the early 1980s, most of them can't find qualified scientists in areas such as pharmacology, toxicology, and enzymology, notes the Committee on Biomedical and Behavioral Research Personnel of the National Academy of Sciences. In particular, the panel recommends a 41% increase - from $91.5 million in 1987 to $129.2 ...

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