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Europe

Summary:

Since the beginning of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S.-European cooperation been a strong and vital component of NIH's research agenda, starting with the travels of NIH's first director, Dr. Joseph Kinyoun, to laboratories in France and Germany. Today the NIH enjoys much collaboration with European colleagues. While a few activities take place under the auspices of bilateral programs, the majority of collaborations are initiated and carried out without the assistance of formal agreements. In 1997, over 950 scientists from European universities, hospitals, and research institutes came to the NIH as Visiting Scientists. Furthermore, European scientists were investigators on more than 340 NIH-funded grants and contracts (often in collaboration with U.S. scientists).

A number of other European governmental organizations, some of which are mentioned below, also support biomedical research. Together with the NIH, they support the bulk of the world's publicly funded biomedical research, supporting scientific investigations of practically every aspect of human health. Below is a sampling of activities involving U.S. and European scientists, followed by a list of potentially useful links.