Rockefeller Science Funding: The Long And Short of It

If you’ve got an idea for a research project that could save the world if only you could get a few million dollars of funding, don’t bother call. ing the Rockefeller Foundation. If they have an interest in such a grand-scale science effort, they’ll hand- pick the scientists they want to work on it. On the other hand, if you’re more modestly inclined investigator whose proposal requires less than $100,000, you might indeed do well to ring up the folks at Rockefeller, which takes two distinctly different approaches to doling out its riches— one for established investigators, the other for newcomers. Although it is best known for its multimillion-dollar support of basic and applied research—often carried out by already-eminent researchers—the 76-year-old foundation also distributes dozens of grants-in-aid each year to scientists who submit unsolicitied proposals requesting $100,000 or less. Approved on the signature of a program officer and the foundation president,, these proposals have a relatively quick turnaround time and can be renewed twice. These unsolicited proposals are regarded by the foundation as a fertile source of ideas for larger-scale projects, a place for the foundation to sow seed money. “Some of our best programs started with unsolicited proposals,” says Rockefeller Foundation vice president Frank Karel. As a result, he adds: “Small grams are husbanded with care.” Two programs that welcome proposals from new talent, for example, are the newly created Biotechiology Career Fellowships, and grants available from the Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy, which the foundation generously supports. Scholars are sent to the Italian center—for anywhere between several weeks and several months—to pursue personal projects, such as the completion of a manuscript. The center also sponsors conferences on a wide range of subjects; past conferences have ranged in topic from genetically engineered organisms in the environment and policies for responding to climatic change, to international groundwater issues. Typical of those scientists who have - taken advantage of the foundation’s under $ 100,000 grants -in-aid are Fred Heffron of the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, La Jolla, Calif., and Victor Nussenzweig of the New York University Medical Center, New York City. Heffron first learned of the foundation’s possible interest in supporting his work during informal chats with a Rockefeller program officer at several professional meetings. (Since the foundation’s early days, it has maintained a large corps of savvy program officers and consultants who act as “circuit riders,” traveling to conferences, meeting with top researchers, and keeping tabs on the movers and shakers in the foundations fields of interest.) Heffron’s “completely unsolicited proposal” to support postdoctoral work in salmonella-based vaccines was a “fairly painless procedure”' he says. He needed money in a hurry, and the foundation came through with it much faster and with much less red tape, in his opinion, than a larger, bureaucracy-laden organization such as NIH ever could have. Heffron’s proposal was shorter in length than those required by agencies like NIH, but the ensuing grant, $40,000 for one year, was smaller than those often granted by larger agencies. And there, were some “perks,” as well. “Particularly terrific”, says Heffron, was that, “I was invited to Rockefeller Foundation-supported meetings in my area of research,” as an indirect result of the application. Victor Nussenzweig, a researcher on tropical diseases, learned of the foundation’s support of his field through the academic grapevine. “When there is so little money in the field, you better know where the money is,” Nussenzweig says. The Rockefeller Foundation, he says, has a reputation for, “doing a great job in supporting (studies) of tropical diseases.” Nussenzweig’s request for a $20,000 grant to study the function of a surface protein in trypanosomes, a parasitic protozoa that causes serious diseases such as sleeping sickness, was granted within a couple of months. “Unlike working with large federal granting agencies, you don’t have to wait a year and a half to get your money. With the Rockefeller Foundation, there is no delay.” says Nussenzweig, who has received multiple Rockefeller grants. Similarly, there is no time wasted when the foundation decides to work on a particular big-bucks science project. Once Rockefeller identifies a specific area of need, it sets about recruiting eminent researchers, then lavishes this top talent with generous and sustained financial support. The foundation’s recent initiative to encourage work on rice, a crop that has received little attention from Western researchers and little support from industry and the traditional government funding agencies, is an example of its “big science” funding process in action. In December, 1984, the foundation decided to commit up to $5 million over 15 years to apply molecular techniques to plant biology in developing countries. In the plant sciences, a field that rarely enjoys large grants, these are extraordinary sums. To the foundation, however, doling out millions is nothing new, especially when it comes to research in areas the foundation has specifically targetted. By making rice the focus of attention of senior plant biologists it hand-picked from the best in the field, the foundation furthered its desire to “promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world”, a goal originally articulated by its founder, John D. Rockefeller Sr. The foundation is rich enough to persist until a job gets done. But in this case, it didn’t take long to get the desired results. Last year, three Rockefeller-funded research teams at the University of Tsukuba, Japan, the University of Nottingham, England, and at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., succeeded in putting novel genes into rice. Last month, another ‘Rockefeller-funded research team at Purdue University, West Lafayette; Md., successfully grew a mature, fertile rice plant from a single cell. Together, these accomplishments in plant biology should greatly accelerate the breeding of more nutritious, disease-resistant rice. While its methods of distributing funds varies greatly with the amount of money requested, the Rockefeller foundation requires that all proposals it funds fall within the realm of its six identified program areas or scientific initiatives. On the agriculture front, these include improving cereal strains and improving food production systems in developing countries. The foundation also encourages international agricultural research collaborations. Other Rocekfeller initiatives are: preventing disease through the use of vaccines and pharmacology; promoting population-based health care, and developing technology for regulating fertility. The foundation is also considering adding an environmental initiative to this list. Anne Simon Moffat is a free lance science writer in Ithaca, N.Y

Rockefeller Science Funding: The Long And Short of It

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