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. We are gratified to see the level of success they have achieved and trust that our funding contributed to their alcohol research career development.

Over the last few years, ABMRF has sought additional funding sources to support our efforts. At the close of 2010, we received notice from SABMiller that they would provide new money to begin a research program in South Africa. We are pleased that SABMiller expressed confidence in our ability to extend our model of funding research to include young investigators in South Africa. The Foundation also has a close working relationship with ERAB: The European Foundation for Alcohol Research, a charitable foundation that supports alcohol research. For more than four decades, we have met regularly with representatives of ERAB or their predecessor organizations to discuss important topics in alcohol studies. We look forward to expanding the group to include scientists from South Africa.

Each country has unique issues that make understanding and addressing problems associated with the use of alcohol more complex. What we know about the effects of alcohol in North America may or may not be accepted knowledge in other societies where the pattern of consumption or the genes or the environmental influences differ from those in North America. Even if all the biomedical issues are the same, the social environment clearly differs in other countries. Soon we will announce the opportunity for funding to qualified investigators in South Africa at an early stage of their career development. We will also identify one or more senior scientists from South Africa to join our Advisory Councils and to participate actively in reviewing grant proposals from applicants in North America and South Africa. Since alcohol issues have major global consequences, we will relentlessly support research on the effects that consuming alcoholic beverages has on health and behavior.

Mack C. Mitchell, Jr., M.D.
Taken from the 2010 Annual Report