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Abstract
How will the digitization grants initiative at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute affect scientific careers? The author describes some of the new Web-based resources of HHMI.
Each individual and institution receiving HHMI funding will be registered in
the HHMI database, and scientists will be encouraged to post their career
data on HHMI Web sites. According to the plan, other funding institutions
such as NIH will add information to the database, which will be
cross-referenced for flexible, integrated searching. The intended results:
to help HHMI evaluate the effects of its funding efforts over the long term,
to provide public information that helps scientists collaborate and plan all
aspects of their careers, and to publish useful information about trends
in science.
Beginning this fall, all grant competitions will be posted online, and the
information will be used for online reviews, helping others track progress
of the awards process, and managing the awards. In September, the site will
also start recording assessments. Once assessments are analyzed, HHMI
will share the results. For example, the predoctoral grant program will have
twelve hundred applications, but only 80 awards will be granted. HHMI can
collect all the information from the applicants, then perform analyses to
show different groupings and how they relate to outcomes. This information
can help HHMI plan its programs to maximize achievement of its own funding
goals. Once it publishes the results on the Web, candidates will better
understand how to get funding.
Joseph Perpich, vice president of grants and special programs at HHMI, explains that publishing such information on the Web will help to even the playing field for funding. Talented applicants who may know less about the ins and outs of receiving grants than some of their colleagues will now have valid statistical information about factors such as educational background, field of research, and related investigators and advisers. The Web site will offer advice to help novice grant applicants, and will provide step-by-step instructions.
The program may also make it possible for grantees to have more control over
their education. HHMI's educational grants are currently divided into four
modules: precollege, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate. These divisions, of
course, reflect the way that educational systems traditionally group their
students. However, the Web makes the boundaries between these different
levels more penetrable than ever before because all academic levels can
access the same information. Understanding this trend, HHMI can make new
connections among these three groups of students. Perhaps a sophomore with
great talent and ambition could apply and get funding for doctoral-level
research.
As Perpich explains it, the Web site program will ask that grantees voluntarily submit information about themselves and their careers. This information will enable HHMI and the public to learn about important career transitions and outcomes. For example, it could answer questions like: why different people go into different scientific fields, which types of scientists (by age, sex, background) migrate into industry or into other fields like law or journalism, and why many scientists leave their jobs because of working conditions or personal considerations.
The vast amount of information that HHMI intends to collect should have an
impact on national and international science policy. For example, the
federal government might alter support for an early science education
program if HHMI could show how the program affected scientists 25
years after they graduated. In another example, HHMI or the government might
analyze demographic information for international students, and then change
funding parameters to better support their institutional goals.
HHMI's Grants for Science Education page provides a glimpse into how the digitization program is already paying off. Go to the Precollege Science Education Program to see an overview of this program, and to search among program profiles to find funded programs sorted by year, geographical area, and other parameters. By selecting the American Museum of Natural History's 1997 award, you get a summary of outcomes, challenges, and resources. Here you learn that the museum used HHMI funding to assess its efforts in biodiversity education, and then created curricula to help middle school students and their families. The resources section provides valuable links for anyone who wants to discover how to teach biodiversity at this level.
You can find plenty of useful information about HHMI investigators, including summaries of their work posted by field, as well as listings of individual interests, and Web site locators for their labs. For example, the HHMI research in progress summary for Stanford University School of Medicine's Roel Nusse describes his work with the Wnt gene family in Drosophila. However, Nusse also provides links to the Speed Skating homepage and its celebration of the Dutch clap skate. Would you like to know how the HHMI International Program supports scholars around the globe? Browse Scholars and Their Research by country and view the profiles of students in that country. For a young scientist who simply wants to know what it is like to study in Hungary, the profiles on this site will be useful. For HHMI, the information these students supply will help shape HHMI's future international programs, which will supply $29 million for international students in the 2000 competitions.
As part of its dedication to providing Web access to scientific information,
HHMI has jointly developed GrantsNet
with the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Also accessible through Science magazine's Next Wave site, GrantsNet is a
valuable resource for exploring grants from HHMI, NIH, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and the American Cancer Society. HHMI has also started
programs to provide online access to Science, Cell, Nature, and other major journals for scholars
in countries with great financial hardship.
The HHMI Web initiative promises to be very powerful, but it may have its dark side. Do you really want every aspect of your career to be measured over 25 years, and then have it made available to different agencies and possibly to the public (including competitors)? If you participate in this program, be very prudent about what information you supply for the database. However, take advantage of what this initiative can offer you and your career. It is a tremendous resource that will only blossom over the next five years.
Christopher G. Edwards is a Boston-based science management consultant, writer and editor.
Andrzej Krauze is an illustrator, poster maker, cartoonist, and painter who illustrates regularly for HMS Beagle, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, Bookseller, and New Statesman.
How to Wow a Study Section: A Grantsmanship Lesson - tips on grant writing from study section members. From the March 2, 1998 issue of The Scientist.
Community of Science - an extensive resource for locating, among other things, grant opportunities. Access requires a research-institution subscription.
Funding Trends and Analysis - a series of reports on grant-giving by U.S. foundations. From The Foundation Center.
NIH: Funding Opportunities - the gateway to NIH's extensive grant-related information, including the CRISP (Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects) database.
NSF Grants and Awards - information for getting NSF grants, as well as award data on previously funded projects.
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