GRANTS AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS 
The Institute's grants program began in 1987, 
with the first awards being announced in October 
1987. The initial focus of the grants program has 
been on graduate and undergraduate education in 
the biological sciences, with future program devel- 
opment planned in public and precollege science 
education and health sciences policy. 
GRADUATE EDUCATION IN THE 
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 
In the first two years of the grants program, grad- 
uate education activities have been aimed at 
expanding the pool of biomedical investigators 
through the awarding of individual fellowships. In 
addition, a small number of grants have been 
awarded to selected institutions that traditionally 
have played a unique national role in education 
and research training in the biological sciences. 
Doctoral Fellowships in the Biological Sciences 
To respond to future needs for biomedical re- 
search scientists and educators, the Institute has 
established a doctoral fellowship program in the 
biological sciences. Fellowships are awarded for 
full-time study toward a Ph.D. or Sc.D. degree in 
the biological sciences that parallel the Institute's 
five research programs. Each fellowship provides an 
annual stipend for up to five years, as well as an an- 
nual cost-of-education allowance provided to the 
institution at which the fellow will study. The fel- 
lowships are intended for students at the beginning 
of their graduate study, including foreign nationals 
as well as United States citizens. Students who hold 
or are currently pursuing degrees in medicine, vet- 
erinary medicine, or dentistry also may apply for 
fellowships for study toward the Ph.D. degree. 
Panels of distinguished biomedical scientists, 
under the auspices of the National Research Coun- 
cil (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences 
(NAS), which administers the fellowship competi- 
tion on behalf of the Institute, evaluated 1,100 eli- 
gible applications in the 1989 competition. Of 
these, 61 fellows were selected by the Institute. 
The new fellows, who are drawn from some 45 un- 
dergraduate institutions (including 8 from outside 
the U.S.), will do their graduate work at 26 aca- 
demic institutions across the country. The number 
of doctoral fellows now totals 120, with 34 univer- 
sities serving as fellowship institutions. The Insti- 
tute anticipates awarding a similar number of new 
fellowships each year, until approximately 300 fel- 
lows are supported in any given year. 
Medical Student Research Training Fellowships 
To strengthen and expand the pool of medically 
trained researchers, a new fellowship program was 
launched in the fall of 1988. This program of Medi- 
cal Student Research Training Fellowships enables 
selected medical students who have developed an 
interest in fundamental research during the course 
of their medical studies to spend an intensive re- 
search year in a laboratory. Building on the success- 
ful Research Scholars Program (the joint effort of 
the Institute with the National Institutes of Health 
in Bethesda), the new fellowship program will pro- 
vide an opportunity for up to 60 fellows each year 
to engage in full-time research at any medical 
school, university, or research institute in the 
United States. 
On the basis of review by a panel of eminent aca- 
demic scientists and physicians, the Institute named 
47 medical student fellows in 1989, the first year of 
the program. The fellows, drawn from 24 medical 
schools, will be pursuing their research training at 
21 academic institutions in the United States. 
The fellowship provides a stipend to the fellow, a 
research allowance for the student's mentor, and 
an allowance to the fellowship institution. Each 
year a small number of these fellows, as well as Re- 
search Scholars, will be selected for up to two years 
of continued fellowship support upon return to 
their medical studies. 
Research Resources 
Through its research resources program, the In- 
stitute provides support to research and educa- 
tional organizations that serve as unique national 
resource laboratories and teaching facilities, includ- 
ing those that provide biological stocks and materi- 
als. The initiative focuses on support for organiza- 
tions that serve the biomedical research community 
as a whole and whose activities relate to the estab- 
lished medical research programs of the Institute. 
Two new awards were made in 1988, to the Marine 
Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts and to the 
NAS/NRC Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources 
Continued 
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