John E. Fogarty International Center

John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences
New 2008 logo
Agency overview
Formed July 1, 1968
Headquarters Bethesda, Maryland
Employees 60
Annual budget $66 million (2007)
Agency executives Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D., Director
Micheal P. Johnson, M.D., Deputy Director
Dexter Collins, M.P.A., Executive Officer
Parent agency National Institutes of Health
Website
www.fic.nih.gov

The John E. Fogarty International Center (FIC) is part of the federal government of the United States and is the only arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) whose sole mission is to support global health. It is one of the 27 component organizations of the NIH, which is in turn part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It was formally established in 1968 and is headquartered at a central campus in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as funding research around the world.[1]

Contents

History

On July 1, 1968 President Lyndon Johnson issued an Executive Order establishing the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. In the 40 years since, the span of a single generation-support for international biomedical and behavioral research and research training by the Fogarty International Center has grown from modest roots laid down at the outset-FIC's first year budget totaled $500,000-to a globe-encircling $66 million research, training, and capacity-building enterprise extending to over 100 countries and involving some 5,000 scientists in the U.S. and abroad. In 2008, the Fogarty Center is celebrating its 40th Anniversary.

Mission statement

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.

Strategic Plan

The Fogarty Center has released its new five year FIC Strategic Plan. It will direct the Center's activities until 2012.

Current Director

Dr. Roger I. Glass, M.D., Ph.D., was named the Director of the Fogarty International Center and Associate Director for International Research by NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., on March 31, 2006. He formally took office on June 11, 2006.

Dr. Glass graduated from Harvard College in 1967, received a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the University of Buenos Aires in 1967, and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1972. He joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1977 as a medical officer assigned to the Environmental Hazards Branch. He received his doctorate from the University of Goteborg, Sweden in 1984, and joined the National Institutes of Health Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, where he worked on the molecular biology of rotavirus. In 1986, Dr. Glass returned to the CDC to become Chief of the Viral Gastroenteritis Unit at the National Center for Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Glass's research interests are in the prevention of gastroenteritis from rotaviruses and noroviruses through the application of novel scientific research. He has maintained field studies in India, Bangladesh, Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Russia, Vietnam, China and elsewhere. His research has been targeted toward epidemiologic studies to anticipate the introduction of rotavirus vaccines. He is fluent and often lectures in five languages.

Dr. Glass has received numerous awards including the prestigious Charles C. Shepard Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award presented by the CDC in recognition of his 30-year career of scientific research application and leadership, and the Dr. Charles Merieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases for his work on rotavirus vaccines in the developing world.

Dr. Glass has co-authored more than 400 research papers and chapters. He is married to Barbara Stoll, M.D., the George W. Brumley, Jr. Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and the Medical Director of the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston. He and his wife have three children.

FIC Directors

Name From To
Milo D. Leavitt, jr. 1968 1978
Leon Jacobs 1978 1979
Edwin D. Becker (Acting) 1979 1980
Vida H. Beaven (Acting) 1980 1981
Claude Lenfant 1981 1982
Mark S. Beaubien (Acting) 1982 1984
Craig K. Wallace 1984 1987
Carl Kupfer (Acting) 1988 1988
Philip E. Schambra 1988 1998
Gerald T. Keusch 1998 2003
Sharon H. Hrynkow (Acting) 2004 2006
Roger I. Glass 2006 Present

Research and Research Training Programs

Training Grants

AIDS International Training and Research Program This program supports HIV/AIDS-related research training to strengthen the capacity of institutions in low- and middle-income countries to conduct multidisciplinary biomedical and behavioral research to address the AIDS epidemic in the collaborating country. Grants are awarded to U.S. and developing country institutions with strong HIV-related research training experience and with HIV-related research collaborations with institutions in low- and middle-income countries. These institutions, in partnership with their foreign collaborating institutions, identify health scientists, clinicians, and allied health workers from the foreign countries to participate in their joint research training programs. Individuals from foreign nations who wish to become trainees must apply to the project director of an awarded grant.

NIH/Fogarty Clinical Research Training Scholars Program The Fogarty International Center in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Nursing Research, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is offering a 1-year clinical research training experience for graduate-level U.S. students in the health professions.

Fogarty International Collaborative Trauma and Injury Research Training Program This program addresses the research needs related to the growing burden of morbidity and mortality in the developing world due to trauma and injury. The program is supported by Fogarty, 7 NIH partners, the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the Pan American Health Organization, and the World Health Organization (WHO). It addresses training across the range of basic to applied science, the epidemiology of risk factors, acute care and survival, rehabilitation, and long-term mental health consequences.

Framework Programs for Global Health This new initiative builds global health research capacity in the United States and abroad. Through the Framework Programs for Global Health, institutions create administrative frameworks to bring multiple schools (such as engineering, business, chemistry, biology, communication, public health, medicine, and environmental studies) together on the topic of Global Health and develop multidisciplinary Global Health curricula for undergraduates, graduates and professional school students. Each program leverages and enhances currently funded Global Health projects at the institution supported by NIH and other sponsors, as well as encourages new training opportunities, collaborations, and research.

Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program This program enables institutions in the United States or in developing foreign countries to support current and future collaborative research-related training on infectious diseases that are predominately endemic in or impact upon people living in developing countries.

Informatics Training for Global Health This initiative supports the development of informatics training programs that will contribute to global health research and informatics capacity in low- and middle-income countries in partnership with U.S. institutions.

International Research Ethics Education and Curriculum Development Award This program allows domestic or foreign institutions to develop graduate curricula and provide training in international bioethics related to performing research in developing countries.

International Clinical, Operational, and Health Services Research and Training Award This program supports training to facilitate collaborative, multidisciplinary, international clinical, operational, health services, and prevention science research between U.S. institutions and those in low- and middle-income nations.

International Clinical, Operational, and Health Services Research and Training Award for AIDS and Tuberculosis This program supports research training to strengthen the capacity of institutions to conduct clinical, operational, and health services research. These institutions are located in low- and middle-income countries where AIDS, TB, or both are significant problems. In Phase I, one-year planning grants to support the development of full research training applications in Phase II are awarded to institutions in low- and middle-income countries with strong HIV- or TB-related research experience. In Phase II, grants to support a research training program are awarded to Phase I awardees and to their United States or other developed country institutional partner with whom they have strong HIV- or TB-related research collaborations. Individuals who wish to become trainees must apply to the project director of an awarded grant.

International Collaborative Genetics Research Training Program This program supports innovative genetics research training programs in the context of existing scientific collaborations between U.S. and low- and middle-income country researchers to begin to build a critical mass of scientists, health professionals, and academics with human genetics expertise and a sustainable research environment at the collaborating foreign institution.

International Training and Research Program in Environmental and Occupational Health This program enables U.S. universities and non-profit research institutions to support international training and research programs for scientists from developing nations in general environmental health and occupational health. This is an institutional training grant. Applications are accepted from U.S. institutions in response to a specific request for applications which is published once every 5 years; the first awards were made in 1995. Individuals from foreign countries who wish to become trainees must apply to the project director of an awarded grant.

Global Research Training in Population Health This program supports international research training for scientists from low- and middle-income nations in population-related sciences. This is an institutional training grant. Individuals from foreign countries who wish to become trainees must apply to the project director of an awarded grant.

Research Grants

Brain Disorders in the Developing World: Research Across the Lifespan This program supports collaborative research and capacity building projects on brain disorders throughout life, relevant to low- and middle-income nations. Funded projects focus on neurological disorders and function (including sensory, motor, cognitive, and behavioral) and the impairment they lead to throughout life. R21 grants provide support to conduct pilot studies and to organize, plan for, prepare, and assemble an application for a more comprehensive R01 grants. R01 awards involve substantial collaboration between developed and developing country investigators and incorporate both research and capacity building.

Ecology of Infectious Diseases This program funds interdisciplinary research projects that strive to elucidate the underlying ecological and biological mechanisms that govern the relationships relationships, environmental changes, and the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. The focus of this program is on the development of predictive models for the emergence and transmission of diseases in humans and other animals, and ultimately to facilitate the development of strategies to prevent or control them.

Fogarty International Research Collaboration Award (FIRCA) This program provides funds ($32,000/year direct costs) to foster international research partnerships between NIH-supported U.S. scientists and their collaborators in countries of the developing world. The FIRCA program aims to benefit the research interests of both the U.S. and foreign collaborators while increasing research capacity at the foreign site. U.S. scientists who have an eligible NIH grant may apply as Principal Investigators. Former FIRCA foreign collaborators may also apply as Principal Investigators. All areas of biomedical, behavioral, and social science research supported by NIH are eligible FIRCA research topics.

Global Health Research Initiative Program for New Foreign Investigators (GRIP) This initiative promotes productive re-entry of NIH-trained foreign investigators into their home countries as part of a program to enhance the scientific research infrastructure in developing countries, to stimulate research on high priority health-related issues in these countries, and to advance NIH efforts to address health issues of global import. The GRIP provides partial salaries to the foreign researcher returning home and support for research projects.

International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups This program integrates drug discovery from natural products with conservation of biodiversity and scientific and economic development in host countries. The program is jointly funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Foreign Agriculture Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

International Tobacco and Health Research and Capacity Building Program This program encourages transdisciplinary approaches to the international tobacco epidemic to reduce the global burden of tobacco-related illness. The program is designed to promote international cooperation between investigators in the U.S. and other high-income nation(s) pursuing research programs on tobacco control, and scientists and institutions in low- and middle-income nation(s), where tobacco consumption is a current or anticipated public health urgency.

Stigma and Global Health Research Program The purpose of this program is to stimulate interdisciplinary, investigator-initiated research on the role of stigma in health, and on how to intervene to prevent or mitigate its negative effects on the health and welfare of individuals, groups and societies world-wide.

Fogarty Organization

Division of International Relations (DIR)

Fogarty serves as the coordinating link between NIH and other U.S. agencies, foreign governments, and international organizations, on international biomedical research matters. DIR facilitates the development of new partnerships between U.S. scientists and institutions and counterparts abroad to advance research and training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. DIR works on behalf of Fogarty and the whole of NIH to identify opportunities for collaboration with foreign science funding agencies, the U.S. Department of State, other U.S. technical agencies, and international organizations. Additionally, DIR fosters and facilitates international cooperation in biomedical research by disseminating information on foreign biomedical research activities to the NIH research institutes and informing foreign agencies and institutions, including WHO, about the international activities of the NIH; initiating, developing, and supporting, in cooperation with other NIH offices, new activities to address international health problems; preparing background materials for NIH senior staff participation in international meetings and discussions; providing advice to the NIH director and deputy director and to senior staff of the NIH research institutes on policies and procedures relating to international activities; assisting the institutes by obtaining clearances for awards requiring State Department approval and by interpreting HHS and State Department procedures relating to international travel; serving as a channel for communications to and from U.S. embassies abroad and foreign embassies in Washington; and coordinating responses to inquiries on international issues.

Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies

This Division plans, designs, and conducts studies to examine factors affecting the application of health science advances for the benefit of populations, particularly in developing countries. The Division performs research in the epidemiology and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases. Primary concentrations include cross-national studies of mortality patterns with special emphasis on influenza-associated disease and vector-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Division of International Science Policy, Planning, and Evaluation

This Division plans and conducts studies relevant to the programmatic and policy directions of Fogarty and that complement the research activities of the categorical institutes of the NIH. The Division also advises the Fogarty Director on the development, analysis, and evaluation of the Center's programs and on international science policy issues.

Division of International Training and Research

This Division administers research and research training grants and fellowships programs, which are active in over 100 countries.

References

  1. ^ The original version of this article was taken from a public domain source provided by the US government

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