HHMI is already well known within the United States for identifying top scientific talent and encouraging researchers to push the boundaries of science. With its international grants, the Institute applies the same principles to support scientists and science in other countries.
"It's important to make this kind of investment in science globally because one never knows where the next great idea will come from," says Jill Conley, director of HHMI's international program.
For a new set of awards to be made in 2005, HHMI will provide 80 scientists with five-year grants of $50,000 to $100,000 annually to conduct basic biomedical research in their own countries.
In the first of the two competitions, the Institute will select 40 scientists who are on the front lines of the fight against emerging and established infectious diseases such as malaria, Chagas disease, and tuberculosis.
A second group of grants to scientists in 13 countries from the Baltics, Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, and Ukraine will encourage talented scientists to stay in their own countries, helping reverse the brain drain and build the scientific capacity of those nations.
Many countries in this region have a strong tradition of scientific research but such limited resources that scientific progress is in danger of extinction. "HHMI wants to help keep those scientific traditions alive," Conley says.
Researchers from any country other than the United States and the United Kingdom can apply for the infectious dis
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Contact: Jennifer Donovan
donovanj@hhmi.org
301-215-8859
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
14-Apr-2004