Bethesda, MD--Many complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practices have evolved over thousands of years and from all corners of the world. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is funding new partnerships between U.S. and international research teams in a novel effort to study traditional medical approaches as they are practiced in other cultures. These partnerships have been given planning grants to create the infrastructure and scientific foundation for multidisciplinary research on CAM. The culmination of these planning efforts will be a competition for the NCCAM International Center for Research on CAM.

The goal of the Planning Grants for International Centers for Research on CAM (PICRC) is to establish global collaborations and cross-cultural exchange among foreign and U.S. institutions to design and implement research on CAM approaches that have emerged from traditional indigenous medical systems. These partnerships will allow investigators to conduct research in the unique environments in which the practices originated. It is anticipated that at least one of the planning grant recipients will successfully compete for the International Center for Research on CAM. All of the other grant recipients should be better poised by these planning awards to submit competitive applications for individual research projects.

"It is our hope that this initiative will encourage research in traditional medicine and result in research that benefits the health of citizens in many countries," said John Killen, Jr., M.D., Director of NCCAM's Office of International Health Research. "We know that 80 percent of the world's population uses plants to meet their primary health care needs, so research on indigenous practices can lead to significant advances in global health."

Two-year PICRC grants have been awarded to the following groups:

• Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA
  Principal Investigator:
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Contact: NCCAM Press Office
301-496-7790
NIH/National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
29-Oct-2003


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