AHRQ Offers Pre-doctoral Fellowship Awards for Minority Students

Media Advisory: February 29, 2000

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)—the government agency leading federal research efforts to improve quality of health care in the United States—has announced that it is co-sponsoring a grant program with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at increasing the number of health care researchers from minority populations.

The NIH Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Awards for Minority Students provide up to five years of stipend and partial tuition support for health care-related research training leading to a Ph.D. (or equivalent) research degree or a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree. There is no payback requirement.

AHRQ Director John M. Eisenberg, M.D., said, "As a nation, we are becoming more diverse, and the health care research field should reflect this diversity. As a first step, I call on academic institutions throughout the United States to identify and recruit students from under-represented racial and ethnic groups eligible to apply for these awards." Dr. Eisenberg said these groups include African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders.

The two application receipt dates for 2000 are May 1 and November 15, and the corresponding earliest start dates for awardees are September 1, 2000 and May 1, 2001.

AHRQ's Pre-Doctoral Fellowship Awards for Minority Students provide:

• An annual stipend of $15,060 (for FY 2000). This amount may be increased in future years.
• Partial support for the combined cost of the student's tuition, fees and health insurance (the first $3,000 and 60 percent of remaining costs).
• An institutional allowance of $2,500 per 12-month period to help defray the awardee's expenses.

To access the program announcement online for further details on eligibility and support, and on application procedures, select http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-00-069.html.

For more information, please contact AHRQ Public Affairs, (301) 427-1364: Karen Migdail, (301) 427-1855 (KMigdail@ahrq.gov).

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Internet Citation:

AHRQ Offers Pre-doctoral Fellowship Awards for Minority Students. Media Advisory, February 29, 2000. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2000/predocpr.htm

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