ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research’s foremost goal for the 2010 calendar year was to continue our support of young investigators. Over the last two years despite the worldwide recession,the Foundation has maintained a constant level of grant support for research – mostly awarded to young investigators. This support was possible because of the sustained commitment from our partners in the brewing industry. Despite the period of economic uncertainty, our contributors recognized the virtues, and the value, of developing a better understanding of how alcoholic beverages affect health and behavior.

For established investigators, economic stimulus grants from the federal government provided welcomed funding for alcohol research. Young investigators, however, did not benefit as much. In 2009, more grants were given to investigators over 70 years of age than were given to  investigators under 30, not to mention that the peak age of grantees from the National Institute of Health (NIH) has shifted from the late 30’s in 1980 to the late 40’s in 2006. Furthermore, only 26% of scientists currently hold tenure track positions within six years of getting a Ph.D., and the average age for the first RO1 grant from nih is now over 40.

ABMRF shifted its focus from supporting established, senior investigators to supporting young investigators more than fifteen years ago. This shift was the result of a strategic planning retreat in 1992, when we determined that the Foundation’s limited budget would have the biggest impact if used to support up-and-coming investigators. Our focus on the rising scientist in alcohol research has helped many of them successfully compete for both independent funding through NIH and tenure track faculty positions. Our record of success with this approach has been tremendous, as shown in Table 1 below.

These data indicate that young investigators are very successful using their ABMRF seed money to obtain support for continuing studies from the NIH, with subsequent funding growing over time. Foundation grantees are carefully selected from a very talented pool of applicants. Without independent support early in their careers, some of these scientists would not have been able to obtain the research information needed to justify the larger grants awarded by NIH.

In addition to success in obtaining ongoing NIH support, young ABMRF grantees have received a number of awards from the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) and other organizations. Highlights are shown below in Table 2. Those of us at ABMRF take pride in what our grantees have accomplished. read more... 

Bruce M. Ambler, M.B.A.                                  
Chairman, Board of Trustees                              

Mack C. Mitchell, Jr., M.D.
President                                             

Table 1: NIH Alcohol Research Funding Received by ABMRF Grantees Post Award

This data reflects only the NIH funding received by former grantees in the selected years for research pertaining to alcohol. Many of our grantees continue to receive funding for research outside of alcohol and from sources other than NIH.

Table 2: ABMRF Grantee Awards for Excellence Since 1982