Burroughs Wellcome Fund Programs and Priorities

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BWF Programs and Priorities
Nancy Sung, Ph.D.
January 23, 2008 U.S. Veterans Administration
Office of Research and Development Research
Cyber Seminar
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Outline

• Funding for Biomedical Research
• About Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• Mission and Strategy
• Award Programs

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TOTAL GIVING, 19652005
( in billions)
Inflation-adjusted dollars
Current dollars
Recessions in green 196970 197375 1980
198182 199091 2001
Steep growth 1996-2000
Source Giving USA, 2007
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GIVING BY FOUNDATIONS, 19652005
( in billions)

• Tripling of foundation giving from 1995-2005
• Number of foundations nearly doubled,
• now over 71,000 (50/week)
• Foundation assets in 2006 over 550 billion
• Foundation payout in 2006 40.7 billion

Inflation-adjusted dollars
Current dollars
Data The Foundation Center
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WHERE DID THE 260.28 BILLION GO?
Environmentand animals8.863.4
Internationalaffairs6.392.5
Foundations21.70 8.3
Arts, culture, and humanities13.515.2
Unallocatedgiving 16.156.2
Public-society benefit14.035.4
Human services 25.36 9.7
Religion 93.18 35.8
Education38.56 14.8
Health 22.548.7
Grants for biomedical, translational and clinical
research account for about 4 of the total
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Funding the Biomedical Research Enterprise
Majority funded by industry
Source JAMA 2005 2941333-1342 Hamilton Moses,
Alerion 2007
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The Two Translational Blocks
This is not the goal!
Adapted from IOM Clinical Research Roundtable
Adapted from IOM Clinical Research Roundtable,
2002
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Funding the Health Research Continuum
AHRQ
RWJF
Health Foundations?
HHMI, DDCF BWF
VHAs ACS, AHA, ADA, CFF
Adapted from IOM Clinical Research Roundtable
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Under what conditions should philanthropy
support biomedical research?

• Foundations should concentrate resources on
  problems that are not being dealt with by
  governments or for-profit organizations. Being
  constrained by neither voters nor shareholders,
  they can take risks to find pioneering new
  solutions that can then be adopted on a larger
  scale by governments or for-profit firms
• The Business of Giving A Survey of Wealth and
  Philanthropy, The Economist, 2006.

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Silas Mainville Burroughs (1880 photo) started
his career as a pharmaceutical sales
representative in Philadelphia and moved to
London in 1878 as an agent for a U.S. drug firm.
Henry Wellcome enrolled in the Chicago College of
Pharmacy in 1872 and finished his education at
the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, where me
met Silas Burroughs.
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History of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund

• 1955 Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) created as the
  corporate foundation of the U.S. company
• 1993 The Wellcome Trust sells the company and
  endows BWF with 400 million Burroughs Wellcome
  Co. contributes 30 million to give BWF complete
  independence
• 2008 Endowment grows to 800 million

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Top 10 U.S. Foundations Awarding Grants for
Medical Research, 2005
Based on grants of 10,000 or more awarded by a
national sample of 1010 larger U.S.
foundations.Source JAMA 2005 2941333-1342
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• Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• To advance the biomedical sciences by supporting
  research and other scientific and educational
  activities.

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Grantmaking Strategies

• Career development of outstanding young
  scientists
• Development of investigators in targeted areas of
  science that are undervalued or underfunded

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About BWF. . .
Independent private foundation Endowment of
800 million Award 40 million annually in US
Canada 85 of our grants are made through
competitive peer-reviewed award programs Each
program has an Advisory Committee 15 of our
grants are catalytic and adhoc Engage in
Terrain Mapping every five years
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BWF Board of Directors

• J. Michael Bishop, M.D.
• University of California at San Francisco
• Enriqueta C. Bond, Ph.D.
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund
• Carlos J. Bustamante, Ph.D.
• University of California-Berkeley
• Geoff Gerber, Ph.D.
• TWIN Capital Management
• Phil Gold, M.D., Ph.D. (chair)
• McGill University
• I. George Miller, M.D.
• Yale University School of Medicine
•  

• Mary-Lou Pardue, Ph.D.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jerome F. Strauss, III, M.D.
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Judith Swain, M.D.
• University of California-San Diego
•  Philip R. Tracy, Esq.
• Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell
  Jernigan, L.L.P.

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Focus Areas

• Basic Medical Sciences
• Interfaces in Science
• Infectious Disease
• Translational Research (bench to bedside)
• Science Education
• Population Laboratory-based biological sciences
• Science and Philanthropy

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Competitive Program Matrix
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Biomedical Sciences
Career Development Awardee Conferences Informal
Awardee Updates Lab Management CourseHelp with
Individual IssuesLab Manual Career Development
Pieces on website
Training Programs Frontiers in
Reproduction AAOGF RSDP
Wellcome Research Travel Grants
Hitchings Elion Fellowship
Career Awards for Medical Scientists
Career Awards at the Biomedical Sciences
1978
1992
1995
2007
2006
1999
Evaluation Annual Advisory Committee
reviews Academic Medicine78177-186,
2003Comparative MS Complete
Field Development Professional Society
Support Support for outside studies and
Initiatives Preterm Birth Initiative
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Basic Medical Sciences
Goal To bridge advanced postdoctoral training, or
fellowship the first years of faculty service
Target D.D.S., D.V.M., M.D., or M.D.-Ph.D.
degreeWorking in any basic biomedical science,
with not more than 120 months past most recent
doctorateDisease-oriented, translational or
molecular, genetic or pharmacological
epidemiology research
Amount 700,000 over five years
Deadline October 1
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Interfaces in SciencePhysical/mathematical/compu
tational science and biology
Career Development Lab management course Faculty
offer analysis Awardee convening events
Training Programs MBL Modeling Course MBL
Physiology Course KITP Programs
Institutional Awards at the Scientific Interface
(IASI)
Career Awards at the Scientific Interface (CASI)
1996 2000
2001 2008
Field Development Bridging the Sciences
initiative Support for professional
societies Disseminating experience at NIH, NSF,
HHMI, NAS
Evaluation Progress report review 2003 Science
3011485 2007 Trainee Outcomes project
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Interfaces in Science
Goal To bridge advanced postdoctoral training
the first years of faculty service
Target - Ph.D. degree in physical/mathematical/
computational sciences - Working to address
biological questions - With at least 12 months,
but not more than 48 months
of postdoctoral training
Amount 500,000 over five years
Deadline April 15
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Interfaces in Science
Eligibility Exception
U.S. or Canadian citizens or permanent residents
Foreign scientists who present evidence that
lawful immigration status has been granted
will extend through award duration
(only one such nominee per institution)
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Infectious Diseases
BWF/WT Joint program
Career Development Communicating ScienceGrant
writing courseNetwork BuildingAwardee
Meetings Lab Management Book International Lab
Management Book
New Investigatorsin Mycology
BWF/ASTMHID Fellowships
Scholars in Mycology
Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious
Diseases
Scholars in Molecular Parasitology
New Investigators in Molecular Parasitology
1981
1990
1995
1999
2000
2005
Field Development Aspergillus genomesC.albicans
genomeCryptococcus genomePlasmoDBTri-tryps
genomesMalaria genomesMalaria Next StepsNew
tools for work on Metazoan Parasites
Field Development Woods Hole Parasitology
courseSocietiesWoods Hole MycologyIOM
Microbial Threats ForumNIAID Fungal
WorkshopsSupport for small meetings
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Infectious Disease
Goal To provide new opportunities for
accomplished investigators at the Asst. Professor
level to study pathogenesis
Target - M.D. or Ph.D. - Assistant Professor
with record of independent research
Amount 500,000 over five years
Deadline November 1
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TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
Career Development Awardee/trainee convening
events AAMC, APM initiatives on clinical
investigator career track Drug Development
course AAAS website for physician scientists
Scholar Awards in Experimental Therapeutics
Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational
Research
1997 2007
Field Development IOM Clinical Research
Roundtable, Drug Forum Other IOM, AAMC studies
Support for professional societies Clinical
research ethics, conflict of interest Health
Research Alliance
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Translational Research
Goal To foster the development of established
independent physician-scientists whose work
bridges gap between bench and bedside
Target - M.D. or M.D.-Ph.D. degree - late
Assistant Professor or early Associate
Professor
Amount 750,000 over five years
Deadline October 1
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PHYSICIAN SCIENTISTS AT BWF
Career Development Awardee/trainee convening
events AAMC, APM initiatives on clinical
investigator career track Lab management
course AAAS website for physician scientists
Externally managed programs ASTMH
fellowships ACOG/ AAOGF fellowships MBL courses
Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious
Disease
Career Awards in the Medical Sciences
Clinical Scientist Awards in Translational
Research
Postdocs Early faculty Mid
career faculty
Field Development IOM Clinical Research
Roundtable, Drug Forum Other IOM, AAMC studies
Support for professional societies Clinical
research ethics, conflict of interest Health
Research Alliance
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Bridges between the Population andLaboratory
based Sciences
Bridges between the Population and Laboratory
based Sciences
Field Development EpidemiologyEconometricsCompu
ter ModelingEvolutionary BiologyPublic Health
and more!
Field Development Trainee movement across
institutionsProgram EvaluationCrosstalk with
non-biological fields
Field Development Advanced CoursesSocietiesAwar
dee Trainee GatheringsNetworking with existing
BWF familySupport for small meetings
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Population Sciences
Institutional Program Unifying Population and
Laboratory-based Sciences
Goal The programs supported by these awards will
develop young researchers who will be equally at
home with the ideas, approaches, and insights
generated at the molecular scale and at the
population scale.
Target Degree-granting institutions in the US and
Canada
Amount 500,000 per year for five years
Deadline Letter of intent March 3 Full
application (invitation only) May 15
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BWF Science Education North Carolina Program
Student Enrichment
Partnership Building
Institutional Capacity
Student Science Enrichment Program
NC Grassroots Museum Collaborative
K-12 Outreach Conference

• Convene Awardees
• Evaluation Workshops
• Sustainability Workshops
• Proposal Writing

NC SMT Education Center
Public Policy
NC School of Science and Math Education Future
Center
Teacher Development
Institute for Educational Policymakers
NC Network of Education Funders
UNC Fast Track
NSRC LASER
1996
2007
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Science Education
Goal To support creative inquiry-based science
enrichment activities for elementary, middle and
high school students
Target non-profit organizations in North Carolina
Amount Up to 180,000 over three years
Deadline April 10
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Science Philanthropy
Goal To support activities that are closely
related to our targeted areas and are intended
to improve the general environment for science
Target Non-profit organizations
Amount Varies
Deadline Received all year
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Award Programs
Grants Awarded by Focus Area FY 2006
Total Grants Awarded 39.6 M
Millions of dollars
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Is this how it works?
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Info for Applicants
The Selection Process
Application by Nominated Candidates
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Info for Applicants
Grants are made . . .

• Primarily to degree-granting institutions on
  behalf of researchers, who must be . . .

• Nominated by their institution

• Citizens or permanent residents of the US or
  Canada

• Secondarily to non-profit organizations
  conducting activities to improve the environment
  for science

An exception is made for one program
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• www.bwfund.org
• 919-991-5100