Municipal support of biomedical research

Difficulties in funding promising young researchers at the outset of their careers have led to efforts to find new kinds of sources of support. In the past four years the municipal administration in New York City has funded a program to help support new junior research faculty in the city's research-intensive institutions. Under the aegis of the New York Academy of Medicine a program has been designed that provides support for research proposals that are peer-reviewed and competitively awarded. As measured by the quality of the submitted proposals, progress toward realizing the scientific goals of each, and additional research funding received, the program has been a success, and should be considered for replication by other municipalities.