343 



Our sponsors were willing to add additional funds to our re- 

 search fund in order to sponsor this conference. It is now in its sec- 

 ond day here in this city. It is comprised of some of the most distin- 

 guished neuroscientists in the world. 



Our focus has been on basic research. In recent years all medical 

 research has focused on the macroscopic to the microscopic. We are 

 now down to the cellular and molecular level as the basis for dis- 

 ease. Until we understand the mechanisms that can induce cell 

 regulation and deregulation, we cannot answer the fundamental 

 question of what causes cancer, for example. 



We believe that we are providing the best opportunity for under- 

 standing the processes and mechanisms of disease, specifically 

 those that are statistically associated with smoking. This program 

 is consistent with that of other granting agencies such as the NIH, 

 American Heart Association, American Cancer Society. 



Our grantees who are a broad spectrum of basic biomedical sci- 

 entists for the most part are assured complete scientific freedom in 

 conducting these studies. The grantees alone are responsible for 

 publishing their results. We do not publish papers. We do publish 

 an annual report with abstracts of all of the papers published by 

 our grantees. This is done as a summary and a service to the bio- 

 medical community, and you have that information available to 

 you. 



The grantees in general are encouraged to publish in peer-re- 

 viewed journals ana publication is encouraged in every instance. 

 We have never suppressed publication of any articles. 



There are more than 5,000 basic biomedical contributions in the 

 literature reporting results of CTR sponsored research. They are in 

 the most respected journals, and I will be glad to list those for you, 

 if you so desire. 



Now, how does the CTR function? The CTR functions very much 

 like a study contribution of the NIH, and I speak from personal ex- 

 perience in telling you this. 



We have a Scientific Advisory Board of 15 very distinguished bio- 

 medical scientists from all over this country and Canada. Appli- 

 cants are encouraged to submit to us a preliminary inquiry trying 

 to determine whether we would have an interest in supporting 

 their research efforts. 



These preliminary inquires are reviewed by members of the Sci- 

 entific Advisory Board. In general, about 50 percent of the prelimi- 

 nary inquires are encouraged to be resubmitted as full grant appli- 

 cations. 



When the full grant application is submitted, the Scientific Advi- 

 sory Board members review these. All members of the Scientific 

 Advisory Board review all grants and two or more of the Scientific 

 Advisory Board are asked to submit written reports regarding 

 these grants. Then twice yearly the Scientific Advisory Board gath- 

 ers for a day session during which they rank and score these grant 

 applications. 



Clearly, we are not able to support all of the good research that 

 is submitted to us, but we do fund grants to the extent of 12 per- 

 cent of the submissions. This is approximately the same as the 

 funding level at the National Institutes of Health at the present 

 time. 



