Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced today a new $300 milion program to recognize the best biomedical scientists still starting up their careers. Through this Early Career Scientist Program, HHMI aims to support outstanding researchers with 2 to 6 years experience running their own labs.
At this stage in their careers, as the program announcement notes, researchers have often run through their institution's start-up funding and must find the money to keep their labs going. With NIH money becoming tighter, more biomedical scientists are looking for alternative sources, resulting in greater competition for a limited number of grants.
HHMI hopes to provide up to 70 of the best
early-career scientists with a full year's salary and benefits for up to 3
years. Awardees are expected to devote 3/4 of their time on research, with the
remainder spent on teaching, mentoring, patient care, or other non-research
duties. There are important restrictions, including a list of some 200 eligible
institutions, so candidates should read the announcement carefully. Applicants
must submit both a letter of intent, due 30 April, and a full proposal by 10
June 2008.
GrantsNet has an overview of the program, will full details
available on the HHMI Web site.
Update, 11 March: We removed the word 'grant' from the title and first paragraph, when we learned that recipients become HHMI employees for the period of the award.
