In partnership with NIH and our philanthropic supporters, we fund and administer training programs that provide opportunities to students of science, from high schoolers to post-doctoral scholars.

Here are a few examples of these programs in action:

• Annually, the Medical Research Scholars Program enrolls 50 medical, dental, and veterinary students in a year-long research training and mentorship program, including lectures, clinical teaching rounds, and a research symposium.
• The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Health Disparities in Tribal Communities Summer Internship Program (HDTC-SIP) provides STEM exposure to students from underrepresented populations.
• The Amgen Scholars program offers summer training for undergraduates to participate in cutting-edge research.
• The Pew Latin American Fellows Program provides post-doctoral training to young student scientists from Latin America.
• We support scientists and promote them through annual lectures at the National Eye Institute, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, and elsewhere.

Meanwhile, legacy funds from individual benefactors, such as the James T. Wendel Fund that supports neurological research in the lab of NIH’s Dr. Carsten Bönnemann, help move scientific achievement farther, faster, giving hope to future patients. The William and Buffy Cafritz Family Foundation is also moving the needle on novel research through the Pamela Anne Cafritz Renal Cell Carcinoma Award, which seeks to attract new investigators-particularly women-to kidney cancer research at the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute.

Individual programs, such as the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fund for Women Scientists in Cancer Research and the Deeda Blair Research Initiative for Disorders of the Brain, provide financial support, mentoring, and recognition to promising young scientists.

“I have always felt that giving money to trainees is the best investment,” explained Dr. Jeffrey Rosen, Distinguished Service Professor and Leader of the Breast Cancer Program at Baylor College of Medicine – Executor of the Sallie Rosen Kaplan Fund for Women Scientists in Cancer Research. “Our future in biomedical research will be dependent on supporting a pipeline of well-trained postdocs.”

In 2022, the 2021 recipients of the Deeda Blair Research Initiative for Disorders of the Brain used their award and recognition to make significant inroads in both their research and their professional standing. As FNIH Founding Board Member Deeda Blair noted: “This program supports young researchers who will explore creative new ideas and even high-risk, disruptive research.”

At FNIH, training and celebrating emerging biomedical researchers remains a high priority, and we look forward to continuing to support the next generation of scientists.