Officials of the Fogarty International Center, a National Institutes of Health unit that has brought 2,700 foreign postdoctoral researchers to the United States since 1958, are considering steps to involve more scientists from Third World nations.
A study of the center’s International Research Fellowship (IRF) program, commissioned by NIH and conducted by an independent firm earlier this year, generally praised the program, which was established to promote cooperation in biomedical research. Each year about 90 postdocs, most of them between the ages of 30 and 34 and in the formative phases of their research pioneers are given stipends to pursue projects in U.S. laboratories.
However, the report notes, the majority of scientists who received the awards fmm 1958 to 1982 were from industrialized nations, including 54% from Western Europe. Only 3% of the participants were from Africa, and most of these were from comparatively advanced South Africa. Nigeria was the ...
