FICRS/F Support Center Expands

Sixty-four scholars and 24 fellows from the United States and 19 other nations were selected to train in global health research in 29 top research institutes in low- and middle-income countries. An American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award to the FICRS-F Support Center was the largest received by Vanderbilt University this year, and has been instrumental in supporting 10 new U.S. fellows and 11 2008-2009 ICRF fellows who will continue on a second year. This ARRA award will also support further programming including the first Alumni Symposium, which will take place in the fall of 2011.

The Support Center continues to reach out to new partners, including the Fulbright Scholar Program. The recently announced Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship Program will place Fulbright trainees in sites administered by the Support Center beginning in 2010.

Thanks to the generous support of the National Institutes of Health, Support Center programming has expanded its scope to research encompassing chronic diseases in developing countries. Several new training sites have been added to the program which now include 10 UnitedHealth and NHLBI Collaborating Centers of Excellence in chronic disease research. Among the fields of study for FICRS-F trainees are:

• AIDS and related opportunistic infections
• malaria
• sexually transmitted infections
• substance abuse
• mental health
• oncology
• diseases of the heart, lung, and blood
• neurology
• ophthalmology
• dietary issues

For more information, visit fogartyscholars.org