During Congressional hearings earlier this year, Dr. Elias Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) testified that, "In times of constrained budgets, the most important action NIH needs to take is to preserve the ability of young scientists with fresh ideas to enter the competitive world of NIH funding." The National Institute on Aging (NIA), in concert with this view, recognizes that supporting emerging scientists sustains and furthers our mission to conduct and fund high-quality research on aging and age-related diseases, with the overall goal of improving the health and well-being of older Americans.
To encourage promising new investigators, the NIA has maintained its commitment to supporting training and career development programs for talented scientists interested in careers in aging research -- despite no-growth budgets. Indeed, without a steady supply of new investigators entering the field, the effects of a temporary budget constraint can reverberate for many years. A particular concern has been the sparse number of clinicians, particularly physicians, choosing careers as clinician-investigators. NIA has made a special effort, through its partnership with The John A. Hartford Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Starr Foundation, and the American Federation for Aging Research, to expand the cadre of clinician-investigators in aging through support of the Beeson Career Development Award (BCDA). The BCDA program provides large awards and mentorship for the Beeson Scholars competitively selected for the program (for more information see: www.beeson.org and http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AG-07-001.html ).
Another new model, which supports young investigators during vulnerable times in their career trajectories, is the new NIH-wide "Pathway to Independence Award Program" (http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/indez.htm ) also known as the K99/R00 award. It is designed to attract those who have caught the research bug, are still in research training, and find early success during their research fellowship or training years. Beginning this year, NIH will support between 150 and 200 of these awards. They will support investigators through a mentored phase of supervised research (1 -2 years) and a subsequent independent phase ( 3 - 5 years) which will provide significant research support to transition to an independent researcher status once the grantee has obtained a faculty position.
An NIH individual mentored career development award (K08, K23) is a common follow-on award to a research training appointment (on a T32) or an individual fellowship award. Designed to advance clinician-researchers to research independence, these awards provide additional mentoring and skill development targeted to the particular research area on which a clinician-researcher has begun to focus.
These are a few of the many different types of awards available to help attract and sustain new scientists. I encourage you to investigate these support mechanisms and other current funding opportunities by visiting the NIA Web site (www.nia.nih.gov ). If you're a new investigator applying for NIH funding, don't forget to self-identify by checking the box on the face page of your application; peer reviewers will take note of this.
With your interest, the field of aging research will continue to develop and grow, to the benefit of both individuals and a society interested in health and well-being with age.
|
