Funding Briefs

Persons trained as medical doctors have traditionally played an important role in advancing the frontiers of biomedical research. But the need to pay medical education debts and the competition for funding have pushed many potential researchers away from the laboratory and into clinical practice. Enter the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. HHMI has just launched a postdoctoral research fellowship program to encourage clinically trained M.D.'s to pursue careers in research. Each year the program will support up to 25 fellows with annual stipends ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 and an additional $17,000 in institutional and personal allowances. The stipends run for three years and will be awarded to M.D.'s who have completed their clinical training and who wish to conduct research at the institution of their choice. The Bethesda, Md.-based institute, established in 1953, has an endowment approaching $5 billion. Although it has funded a network of senior investigators for many years, only in the past few years has it begun to confront directly the pending shortage of biomedical scientists in the next generation. Its current programs concentrate on undergraduate- and graduate-level training, and HHMI officials expect future efforts to encompass the precollege and health policy arenas as well. A new 50-page booklet, entitled "Grants Program Policies and Awards 1988-89," highlights the institute's efforts during the past two years. For more information on the postdoctoral research fellowships and other programs, contact HHMI, Office of Grants and Special Programs, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, Md., 20817, or call (301) 571-0324. My Summer Vacation The Research Corporation in Tucson, Ariz., believes that one important way to improve the long-term health of U.S. science is to make sure that those who teach the next generation of researchers are themselves excited about science. Although the 77-year-old foundation spends about $3 million annually to support current research, its board decided two years ago to broaden its mission "to increase the flow of young people into the sciences." One result of that decision is its high school-college research partnership program, begun last year, in which each institution receives $5,500 so that its faculty can offer a summer research experience to high school physics and chemistry teachers. This year's class of 52 partnerships includes 32 new awards and 20 renewals from 1988, totaling $286,000, and foundation officials hope the program will increase in size next year. Although participation so far has been limited to high school and university faculty in Arizona, California, and New Mexico, the program is expected to "go national" next year if the foundation can obtain sufficient outside funding from industry and other foundations. For more information, contact Research Corporation, 6840 E. Broadway Blvd., Tucson, Ariz. 85710-2815, or call (602) 296-6771. Excellence In The Keystone State The 14-year-old Whitaker Foundation is known chiefly for its funding of projects that combine engineering with biomedical research. But that program, which is open to young researchers anywhere in the U.S. and Canada who need equipment or who have a new idea, isn't the only support that the foundation provides to struggling scientists. An ongoing social services grants program that serves the tricounty area surrounding Harrisburg, Pa., where the foundation is located, is also benefiting science. Grants in this program are helping to bolster the faculty at colleges and universities in the central portion of the state. One recent grant went to the biology department of Juniata College, which was awarded $225,000 to upgrade its curriculum, support independent research by undergraduates, and acquire laboratory equipment. A similar grant to Dickinson College paid for equipment on a two-for-one matching basis: The next deadline for regional proposals is September 1. The next deadline for the biomedical engineering research program, which is open to faculty members who have received their Ph.D.'s within eight years of submitting their proposal and which gives out a maximum of $180,000 over three years, is November 1. The foundation, established by U.A. Whitaker, founder of Aircraft-Marine Products Inc. (now AMP Inc.) spends more than $8 million each year in support of science. For more information, contact The Whitaker Foundation, 4718 Old Gettysburg Road, Suite 405, Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17055-4325, or call (717)763-1391.

Funding Briefs

The Scientist Staff

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