Philanthropies Announce Program to Develop Scientific Talent Worldwide
March 29, 2016
Summary
HHMI, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation announce the International Research Scholars Program which aims to support up to 50 outstanding early career scientists worldwide.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, today announced an international program to select up to 50 outstanding early career scientists. The program’s aim is to help develop scientific talent worldwide.

The program represents a key piece in HHMI’s efforts to expand and enhance its support of international scientific research in the life sciences. “We are pleased to be joined in this initiative by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and the Gulbenkian Foundation,” said HHMI President Robert Tjian. “Each organization shares a commitment to building international scientific capacity by identifying and supporting outstanding early career scientists who have the potential to be scientific leaders.”

HHMI and its partners have committed a total of $37.4 million for the International Research Scholars Program and will award each scientist who is selected a total of $650,000 over five years. The competition is open to scientists who have trained in the U.S. or United Kingdom for at least one year. Additionally, eligible scientists must have run their own labs for less than seven years, and work in one of the eligible countries.

Countries that are not eligible for this competition include the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and United States), as well as countries identified by the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as being subject to comprehensive country or territory-wide sanctions or where current OFAC regulations prohibit U.S. persons or entities from engaging in the funding arrangements contemplated by this grant program. For this program, such sanctioned countries or territories currently include Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and the Crimea region of Ukraine…

“Scientific innovation is the engine that underpins the discovery and development of new vaccines, drugs, diagnostics and other interventions needed to address global health inequities,” said Chris Wilson, senior advisor and former director of Discovery & Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “International research scientists bring unique perspectives and novel approaches that can accelerate this process. Through this collaborative endeavor, the Gates Foundation, HHMI, the Wellcome Trust, and the Gulbenkian Foundation aim to identify and support the research undertaken by such scientists and to bring them into a community that fosters the careers of these promising individuals.”

Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: “This program brings together funding partners who recognise that investing in research is critical to improving health. Our message is as relevant in lower and middle income countries as it is in high income countries, and this program is one way that we can support world-class scientists wanting to return to non-G7 countries to shape excellent, locally driven health research.”…