History of the National Institutes of Health-Oxford-Cambridge Scholarships

In 1999, Dr. Harold Varmus, then Director of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Michael Gottesman, Deputy Director for Intramural Research, made a decision to establish a formal training process for doctoral students within the intramural program of NIH. Effectively, this opened up research opportunities in over 1200 laboratories encompassing nearly every area of biomedical research. A key decision was to undertake the development of new training programs as "partnerships" with research universities in order to promote inter-institutional collaboration and ensure the students a world-class education by building on the success of existing programs. In 2000, the concept of NIH-UK partnerships was developed to address several key shortcomings in American graduate education in the biomedical sciences. These include excessive time to completion of a Ph.D. (7.8 yrs in a recent study), limitation of programs to a single University, department, or discipline, inadequate preparation for the global nature of contemporary science, and limited experience in collaborative research. Chief among these problems is the long time to the completion of degree that has become institutionalized even at the best Universities. This has resulted in young scientists emerging to begin their independent research careers at the age of 35 or even later. We envisioned that structuring an efficient training experience in global collaborative research would appeal to top students and provide a new prototype for future bioscience doctoral training programs. Among Universities around the world, Oxford and Cambridge offer special features in their long academic traditions, outstanding biomedical science and clinical schools, lack of a language barrier, and previously successful Scholarships for American students. We therefore created a doctoral program which enables exceptional students to pursue collaborative thesis research with a minimal amount of coursework or rotations and completing their Ph.D. in three or four years. Each thesis project is co-mentored by at least two faculty members at Oxford or Cambridge and the NIH and involves laboratory research at both institutions.

Over the past 5 years, the Scholarships have expanded to offer increasing opportunities to outstanding students to pursue biomedical research. At present, there are 60 Scholars carrying out research in approximately 30 different areas of biomedical research. In addition to the UK, are Scholars have carried out portions of their research in China, Germany, Australia, and Africa. Alliances have been established with the Rhodes Trust and the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission to enable science students awarded their Scholarships to participate in the NIH-UK doctoral program. We also have sponsored Churchill, Gates, and Fulbright Scholars to earn full Ph.D.s in biomedical research. An annual Scholars-Mentors Colloquium was instituted to provide cross-fertilization between different researchers and disciplines. We have recently established a framework for students to pursue combined M.D./ Ph.D. degrees. As we contemplate the future, there are important requirements for success. The Scholars work could benefit enormously from a stable long-term residence near the NIH campus, guaranteed travel funds, and laptop computers for research that may take them around the globe. At present, the student funding depends on commitments from each of the NIH investigators from their own institute/lab resources and it will be important to develop a more stable centralized funding structure. The Scholars' research may be more effective in having an impact on human disease and suffering if these students are exposed to thoughtful leaders in disciplines such as such as law, policy, ethics, and commercial development. Those of us intimately familiar with these programs have been gratified by their rapid success, but recognize with humility that this effort will require continued thought, imagination, and support if we are to realize its full potential for humanity.