WASHINGTON—The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) next month will announce a $40 million-a-year program ranging from support for graduate training in the biomedical sciences to funding of health policy and cost-containment studies.
Purnell Choppin, HHMI’s former vice president and chief scientific officer who was appointed president of the institute on September 1, said the education prograin will include funds to upgrade science departments at undergraduate colleges and support for short courses in ethics and other subjects at scientific conferences. Funding for the biomedical education program—a major expansion of HHMI’s activities in this area— represents more than a third of the National Science Foundation’s entire $99 million science education budget for this year.
The new program will also support graduate training at non-academic research institutions, noted George Thorn, chairman of HHMI’s trustees. Thorn and other institute staff members said the new graduate student fellowships will be modeled on NSF fellowships and ...
