Past Grant Recipients Give Florida's Whitehall Foundation Sunny Reviews

As it approached its 50th anniversary a few years back, the Whitehall Foundation of Palm Beach, Fla., decided it was time for some serious self-evaluation. Officials there wanted to make sure that the foundation was supporting the right kind of scientists - and that the scientists were enjoying substantial gains from the backing they were getting. The most efficient approach to finding out, the officials concluded, was to query the scientists themselves. So they prepared a survey asking grant recipients from the past 15 years just what they thought about the foundation. Physiologists, biologists, and neuroscientists from universities and private labs were asked to participate. The survey, according to Laurel T. Baker, trustee and corporate secretary for the foundation, was designed to give the trustees a "thumbnail sketch" of the foundation's effect on the careers of the researchers it had funded. To quantify the foundation's effect, the survey featured questions pertaining to such matters as the number of published articles generated by a grant and the researcher's subsequent success in securing funds from federal sources. The results were most encouraging: 93 percent of the 55 scientists who responded to the survey had published an average of 10 papers on each project initiated with Whitehall funds. In addition, 72 percent of the respondents successfully acquired federal grants to continue their research efforts. "We found that we've honed in on some good researchers," says Baker, who adds that the positive responses convinced the foundation to carry on as before. The Whitehall Foundation was founded in 1937 by George Monroe Moffett, a graduate of Princeton University, who throughout his life supported biological research at that institution, particularly investigations into corn hybridization. After his graduation, Moffett joined Corn Products Refining Company, an Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based firm, now known as CPC International Inc. The company conducts research in food science and technology. Throughout the past 50 years, the Whitehall Foundation (named after the Whitehall Building in New York City, where the board of trustees originally met) has continued Moffett's support of basic biological research through its grants and grants-in-aid programs. The key word at the foundation is basic. Projects that are encouraged, explains Baker, are at "the very, very beginning. Nothing applied, just the very first steps in scientific studies." Telling an often money-starved scientific community that you support "basic" research, however, can cause problems. "We were inundated with requests," says Baker. To simplify matters, the trustees asked their technical advisers to select research areas that they believed could benefit most from the foundation's funds. "The technical staff narrowed it down to five fields," says Baker: plant physiology, development, genetics, and ecology; ecology and population biology; invertebrate neurophysiology; animal behavior and ethology; and taxonomy and phylogeny. However, even this effort failed to stem the tide of requests, says Baker. The five fields, she says, were "still too much." So, to further pare down the number of requests, the foundation now focuses on one of the five areas at a time. The technical staff - whose members themselves are active researchers - periodically reassesses the need for financial support by the various fields, and the area that seems to be the most needy becomes the foundation's funding interest. At present, that interest is research in invertebrate and vertebrate (nonhuman) neurobiology. Any scientist with a Ph.D. or M.D. who is at least at the assistant professorship level is eligible, says Baker. Established scientists of all ages who are not receiving substantial funds from other sources and who work at accredited institutions can apply for the research grants. These grants, which range from $10,000 to $40,000 per year for up to three years, are awarded on the basis of the scientific merit of the proposed project as well as the track record of the researcher. Awardees may also apply for a single two-year renewal of their grants. Renewals, says Baker, "are judged competitively" by the technical staff on the basis of the applicant's success rate. The foundation also offers a grants-in-aid program, designed for researchers not yet firmly established who have difficulty competing for funds. Although geared for younger investigators, older scientists - especially those shifting research efforts in midcareer - can apply for them. The one-year grants-in-aid, which are not renewable, can be as high as $15,000. Researchers can use the money they receive for personnel, materials, publication costs, equipment, travel, and overhead. There are some restrictions, though. For example, the foundation will pay only for travel that is necessary for research. Attending scientific conferences is not deemed fundable. Such trips are "a luxury," says Baker, who adds that the foundation "likes to concentrate monies in the laboratory." One advantage that recipients of Whitehall Foundation grants can rely on is that any equipment purchased with grant money stays with that researcher even if he or she transfers to another institution - a feature that doesn't force relocating scientists to start all over again. To apply for a grant, researchers must first submit a one-page letter of intent for review. If the proposal matches the foundation's current funding interest, then the applicant is invited to submit a full grant application form. Of the 377 researchers who sent in letters of intent in fiscal year 1989, 59 percent received application forms. Of that batch, 70 percent submitted completed applications. In all, 23 new grants, totaling almost $700,000, were awarded by the foundation; these are average figures for a typical fiscal year, Baker says. While letters of intent can be sent in at any time of the year, applications must be submitted by certain deadlines: March 1, September 1, and December 1 for research grants; January 1, June 1, and October 1 for grants-in-aid. For more information, contact Laurel T. Baker, The Whitehall Foundation Inc., Suite 202, 249 Royal Palm Way, Palm Beach, Fla. 33480; or call (between 9 A.M. and 12 noon) (407) 655-4474.

Past Grant Recipients Give Florida's Whitehall Foundation Sunny Reviews

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