44 
Monitoring Stem Cell Research 
the number of individual researchers or institutions that have 
received lines. 
Successful implementation of the current funding policy de- 
pends not only on the availability of eligible lines, but also on 
adequate allocation of financial resources to develop and make 
use of those lines and to advance the field in general. The 
funding policy, though it limits the targets of funding to the 
eligible lines, does not directly delimit or restrict the amount of 
money and other resources that the NIH may invest in human 
embryonic stem cell research. The amount invested, a decision 
left to NIH and the Congressional appropriations process, is 
largely a function of the number of qualified applicants for 
funding and of the NIH’s own priorities and funding decisions. 
Of course, if more lines were eligible for funding, it is quite 
possible that more funding would be allocated, but the amount 
that can be allocated to work on existing lines is not limited by 
the funding criteria. In fiscal year 2002, the NIH devoted ap- 
proximately $10.7 million to human embryonic stem cell re- 
search. Based upon a September 2003 estimate, it will have 
spent approximately $17 million in fiscal year 2003. It is ex- 
pected that further increases will follow as the field and the 
number of grant applications grow. 
As of November 2003, NIH funds have been allocated to 
support the following new and continuing awards for human 
embryonic stem cell research: nine infrastructure awards to 
assist stem cell providers to expand, test, and perform quality 
assurance, and improve distribution of cell lines that comply 
with the administration’s funding criteria (aimed at making 
more of the eligible lines available); 28 investigator-initiated 
awards for specific projects; 88 administrative supplements 
(awarded to scientists already receiving funds for work on 
other sorts of stem cells, either non-embryonic or non-human, 
to enable them to begin to work with eligible human embry- 
onic stem cell lines); two pilot and feasibility awards; three 
awards to support exploratory human embryonic stem cell 
centers; one institutional development award; four post- 
doctoral training fellowships; one career enhancement award; 
and six awards to fund stem cell training (including short-term 
courses) to provide hands-on training to enable researchers to 
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