News & Views item - September 2007

 

While Ms Bishop Pushes Her Flat Wheeled RQF Barrow and Labor's Senator Carr Extols Metrics+, Have a Think on This. (September 21, 2007)

The lead article in this week's "ScienceScope" reports:

 

The Young and the Innovative

Are early-career scientists more likely than their senior colleagues to suggest out-of-the-box research? That's the thinking behind a new grants program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that gives junior faculty members a chance to launch their biomedical research careers.

This week, the agency announced the first batch of 29 awardees for the 5-year, US$1.5 (A$1.73) million New Innovator Awards. Ideas from the 2200 applicants, who have never received an individual-investigator NIH grant and who earned their Ph.D. in the past 10 years, run the gamut from basic to therapeutic research. "Early-career types are historically the ones who come up with the most innovative ideas," says Jeremy Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, adding that he hopes the awards pave the way to subsequent R01 grants. NIH also announced the fourth round of Pioneer Awards to established investigators.