In an effort to educate the new generation of global health scientists, Fogarty International Center and several partner organizations at the National Institutes of Health are devising a new network of academic institutions in the US to give early career health professionals a mentored research experience in developing countries.
A total of $20.3 million will be given over the next 5-6 years to support 450 early career health scientists on year long research fellowships in 25 low and middle income countries. The Fogarty Global Health Program for Fellows and Scholars is going to give five consortia of academic centers about $4.5 million each over the next five years. This will be to support several training activities of about 20 partner institutions. You can view the awards list for the 2012 Fogarty Global Health Program for Fellows and Scholars. Also, 17 NIH institutes and centers will give funds to this effort.
Every consortium will both support and develop training programs in global health research. Each will have focused mentoring for participants and there will be many clinical research experiences at more than 80 research sites in developing countries. Trainees in this program will study typical global health problems, including HIV/AIDS/ TB, child health and malaria. They also will address many chronic diseases that cause many deaths in the developing world, including cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
According to the director of Fogarty, Dr. Roger Glass, the organization is putting together a strong network that will produce a new generation of top researchers that can work in the global arena. This program will be leveraging a great deal of experience, relationships and infrastructure among the 20 partners in the US. The alumni of this program will be very well equipped to deal with the most difficult health problems in the world.
This program should enhance the career paths of everyone who participates, and will boost the strength of global health research programs both in the USA and in foreign countries. It also will improve networking with program alumni and senior scientists who serve as mentors.
About 80% of the trainees in this program will be post-doctoral fellows. About 20% will be doctoral students.
All institutions that are participating in this program must demonstrate that they have the ability to provide excellent mentored global health research education experiences. They also had to show that they have strong research and training activities at a site in a developing country.
Since 2004, Fogarty has been supporting over 500 fellows and scholars for major hands on clinical training in developing countries.
About Fogarty International Center
The Fogarty International Center is a major supporter of clinical and applied research and training in the developing world. This organization is an effective bridge between the NIH and the global health community. Over the last 40 years, more than 5000 scientists around the world have gotten research training through programs at Fogarty.
Fogarty today is funding over 400 research and training programs that are at more than 100 universities in the US. US scientists then have the chance to collaborate with their scientists colleagues in many countries around the world. Many of these are in the developing world. Fogarty also is able to bring together the very best minds in science around the world to talk about the most important global health research issues. These include the eradication of polio, climate change and how it affects the outbreak of disease, and how to improve the research capacity in Africa.
The four divisions at Fogarty work as one to provide the most support possible to global health research that help to improve health and provide data that will guide new international global health policies.
