Foundation Creates $300-Million Program to Support Scientific Research

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute plans to announce today the creation of a $300-million program to help about 70 young scientists who are finding it increasingly difficult to get federal grants to support their research, reports The Boston Globe.

The new program at Hughes, a grant maker in Chevy Chase, Md., comes just as a consortium of universities is releasing a report showing that as the federal government has kept financing of the National Institutes of Health flat over the past five years, scientists have been forced to trim the size of their laboratories and abandon creative research in favor of safer projects.

The report also touches on concerns that young scientists, who have watched their senior colleagues struggle to get federal support, will abandon research in favor of teaching, clinical work, or the business world.

Tom Cech, a Nobel laureate and the Hughes Institute’s president, said that the current federal climate for financing scientific research is stressful and distracting for scientists.

“Here you have these people who’ve been in school for 30 years, they’ve just gotten their labs going, and instead of spending their time making discoveries in the lab or mentoring younger scientists, they spend all their time in an office writing federal grant applications. It’s not a very effective use of their talent.” Mr. Cech said.

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