NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH National Institute of General Medical Sciences Significant Items in the House and Senate Appropriations 193 Research Training The House in its report 101-591, pages 70-71 stated "The Committee recognizes that the MARC Program has been effective in increasing the number of minorities in the biomedical sciences and wishes to see the impact of the Program broadened. Currently, only former MARC undergraduate students can apply for predoctoral fellowships. Several States do not have institutions with sufficient enrollment of minority students in science areas to be eligible for either a MARC or MBRS Program, but have students who could benefit from these programs. The Committee urges NIH to explore portable MARC predoctoral fellowships to enable all eligible minority honor students to apply. The Committee requests NIH to report on the feasibility of this approach during the fiscal year 1992 hearings." Action Taken or to be Taken: The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has prepared a report to the House Appropriations Committee regarding the feasibility of expanding eligibility for predoctoral fellowships to minority students who have not participated in the Minority Access to Research Careeers Honors Undergraduate Research Training Program. The Institute is making plans to announce such expanded eligibility. Minority Programs The Senate in its report 101-516, pages 115-116 stated "The Committee is concerned that as a nation we are not attracting a large enough number of minorities into the field of science and commends NIGMS on its effort to reverse this trend. . .The NIH should explore broadening the competition for portable MARC fellowships to include all eligible minority honor students." Action Taken or to be Taken: The National Institute of General Medical Sciences is making plans to announce expanded eligibility for its Predoctoral Fellowships in FY 1991. Any promising college graduates from a minority group underrepresented in biomedical research would be eligible to apply, once accepted into a Ph.D. or M.D.- Ph.D. program in a relevant field of science. The Senate in its report 101-516, page 116 stated "The Committee is concerned with our ability as a nation to meet the growing demand of the biotechnology industry for well-trained scientific personnel--a problem being addressed by an NIGMS supported biotechnology research training initiative... The Committee directs the NIGMS to continue the annual expansion of the number of biotechnology training slots as established when the program was initiated in fiscal year 1989." 194 Action Taken or to be Taken: In FY 1991 and in FY 1992, NIGMS plans to support 307 trainees and fellows through its special biotechnology training program. While this number does not represent the number of trainees for FY 1992 envisioned when the program began in FY 1989, it does reflect an increase of $2.1 million and 104 trainees above the FY 1990 level. However, overall funding limits in research training and the need to balance this program with the traditional multidisciplinary research training programs of NIGMS, make this an appropriate level. This training authority is shared with the research training programs of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. National Research Service Awards 1/ 195 1989 1990 1990 Sequester 1991 1992 666,037,000 5/ 650,617,000 676,728,000 6/ 623,087,000 7/8/ 690,653,000 7/ 690,653,000 766,421,000 9/ 692,639,000 10/ 752,939,000 11/ 691,278,000 12/ -9,496,000 745,494,000 10/ 693,499,000 13/10 779,351,000 10/ 760,010,000 14/ 833,180,000 1/ Reflects enacted supplementals, rescissions and reappropriations. 2/ Excludes $48,000,000 in NRSA training programs not considered. 3/ Excludes $48,446,000 in NRSA training programs not considered. 4/ Excludes $57,721,000 in NRSA training programs not considered. 51 6/ Does not include funding for AIDS research. Consolidated at the Proposed for Does not include funding for AIDS research ($11,100,000). 7/ Includes $11,100,000 for AIDS research. |