U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the
Health Sciences (FIC)
<http://www.fic.nih.gov/>
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 12, 2009
CONTACT: Ira R. Allen, 301-496-8734, <e-mail: alleni@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
NEW FUNDING BOLSTERS GLOBAL HEALTH TRAINING
Recovery Act Will Help Campuses Meet Student Demand for More Courses
New funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will enable the National Institutes of Health to help four more schools satisfy student demand for global health studies.
Dartmouth College, the University of California, Irvine, the University of New Mexico and Yale University will join 12 institutions that last year were awarded the Fogarty International Center's prestigious Framework grants, which make it possible for faculties to work across disciplines to bring their expertise to bear on improving global health.
"Framework will make us more competitive in the global health arena," said Fogarty director Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D. "We consider this program as creating the infrastructure for America's international research and training, which links to the U.S. and foreign scientific community, and ultimately results in better health at home and strong diplomacy abroad."
Including these awards, 35 schools have received Framework grants since the program's inception in 2005. Within these institutions, faculty from more than 17 different disciplines have participated, including those from schools of medicine, public health, anthropology, law, engineering, environmental sciences, journalism, business, and others.
The money, made possible by the Recovery Act, will preserve and create U.S. jobs in the timely and competitive arena of global health research.
At Dartmouth, the Recovery Act support will partially fund three faculty positions dedicated to teaching and expanding the international health curriculum and add a part-time administrative assistant, said principal investigator C. Fordham von Reyn, M.D. The funds are pivotal in allowing three professors to develop new courses leading to a certificate in international health for undergraduates that will also be available to medical and graduate students, he said.
At UC Irvine, the grant will create one part-time program coordinator position, two summer fellowships for undergraduate students, three summer fellowships for graduate students and one fellowship for junior faculty or a research scientist, said Guiyun Yan, Ph.D., a public health professor. The money will go toward developing new courses and to establish a global health concentration in the master of public health program, he said.
The University of New Mexico program, the first of its kind in the Southwest, will support job creation and preservation by hiring one new full-time administrative assistant, providing part-time consulting work in information technology for Web site development and training nine graduate student fellows a year to meet the demand for global health professionals. It will also support the local economy by bringing in regional speakers and guests to an annual symposium on global health, said Douglas J. Perkins, Ph.D., the head of the program.
At Yale, Robert Dubrow, M.D., Ph.D., associate dean of public health, said, "The grant will be critical in helping to mobilize the full intellectual resources of Yale to address the world's pressing global health problems." Noting that the health of the local New Haven economy is dependent on the economic health of Yale, he said the grant will directly support one-quarter of a faculty member's time and half of a project coordinator's.
"Just as important is that the Framework program catalyzes new externally funded research projects that will provide even more salary support to faculty and employ research support personnel," Dubrow said.
The activities described in this release are being funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). To track the progress of HHS activities funded through the ARRA, visit www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the ARRA, visit <www.recovery.gov>.
The Fogarty International Center, the international component of the NIH, addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information, visit <www.fic.nih.gov>.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) -- The Nation's Medical Research Agency -- includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.
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