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Date: October 20, 1995
For Release: Immediate
Contact: NIH/FIC (301) 496-2075

Seven awards have been made to U.S. universities to support international training and research programs in population-related sciences for scientists and health professionals from developing countries concerned with population issues. Funded projects include research and training programs in areas related to reproductive processes, contraceptive development, contraceptive and reproductive evaluation, reproduction epidemiology, and social and behavioral factors that influence population dynamics. The programs will enhance domestic population research programs by enabling NIH grant recipients to extend the geographic base of their work internationally.

Support for these institutional grants will total approximately 1 million dollars per year over the next five years, and will be shared by FIC and NICHD. The FIC administers the program on behalf of both organizations.

Dr. Philip Schambra, Director of the FIC, and Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the NICHD, announced the awards. They noted that the United Nations Population Division projects that world population will increase to 8.5 billion over the next 35 years. Of the projected increase of some 3.2 billion, it is estimated that less than 200 million will occur in industrialized countries; at least 3 billion, or 95%, will be in the less developed countries. In addition, by the year 2025, 16 of the most populous cities will be situated in the developing world. This trend has significant ramifications for global health, they emphasized, and may lead to pollution and worsening sanitation, the spread and emergence of infectious diseases, over-exploitation of land, destruction of natural ecosystems, unemployment, and inadequate access to health care and education. Schambra and Alexander expressed their hope that these awards will assist to train a cadre of research and health professionals in developing nations who may contribute to the development of population policies that are based on scientific information, and consonant with societal mores and values in the home countries.

The following universities were successful applicants in the first review cycle under this program:

1. The University of Pennsylvania (Principal Investigator, Dr. Jane A. Menken) will collaborate with institutions in Mexico, Uganda, South Africa and Bangladesh on projects that focus on social and behavioral effects of migration, health and survival, fertility and economic status, and the effect of fertility change on mortality;

2. The University of Pennsylvania (Principal Investigator Dr. Jerome F. Strauss) will establish collaborative programs with institutions in Latin America on projects related to reproductive biology;

3. The University of Michigan, Population Studies Center (Principal Investigator, Dr. David A. Lam) will establish collaborative programs with institutions in Thailand, Vietnam, Nepal and China on projects that focus on social and cultural determinants of fertility, including family planning, economic issues and demography;

4. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Principal Investigator, Dr. Frank S. French) will collaborate with institutions in Chile, Kenya, China and Brazil on projects that focus on reproductive biology;

5. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Carolina Population Center Principal Investigator, Dr. Ronald R. Rindfuss) will collaborate with institutions in China, the Philippines and Thailand on training projects in the social sciences, and will establish links with the Laboratory for Reproductive Biology at the University of North Carolina;

6. The Oregon Regional Primate Center at Beaverton and the Oregon Health Sciences University (Principal Investigator, Dr. Michael P. Conn) will develop programs with institutions in Mexico on projects concerning reproductive biology, including studies of non-human primates and neuroendocrinology research;

7. The University of Virginia, Center for Recombinant Gamete Contraceptive Vaccinogens and other University collaborators (Principal Investigator, Dr. John C. Herr) will establish a program with institutions in India related to research in reproductive biology.