What is the mission of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute?
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is dedicated to discovering and disseminating new knowledge in the basic life sciences. HHMI grounds its research programs on the conviction that scientists of exceptional talent and imagination will make fundamental contributions of lasting scientific value and benefit to mankind when given the resources, time, and freedom to pursue challenging questions. The Institute prizes intellectual daring and seeks to preserve the autonomy of its scientists as they pursue their research.

What is HHMI?
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a nonprofit medical research organization that was established in 1953 by the aviator-industrialist. The Institute, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, is one of the largest philanthropies in the world, with an endowment of $14 billion at the close of the 2009 fiscal year. HHMI spent $730 million in support of biomedical research and $101 million for support of a variety of grants programs in fiscal year 2009.

What does HHMI do?
The Institute engages in the direct conduct of biomedical research. Through its flagship investigator program, HHMI has joined with more than 70 distinguished U.S. universities, institutes, and medical schools to create an environment that provides flexible, long-term support for approximately 350 Hughes scientists and their research teams. Through its recent Early Career Scientist initiative, HHMI also supports more than 40 of the nation's best research faculty at a critical early stage of their careers. In 2006, HHMI opened the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Loudoun County, Virginia. Janelia Farm is a research community where scientists probe fundamental biomedical questions that require creativity and intellectual courage, and are best addressed through a collaborative, interdisciplinary culture.

The Institute's complementary grants program supports science education in the United States, seeking to transform teaching and understanding of the life sciences by making grants to institutions and individuals that spark the creation of vibrant learning environments for students of all ages. HHMI also helps maintain the vigor of biomedical science worldwide through support of more than 100 scientists in 28 countries.

What is the HHMI investigator program?
The Institute seeks out highly creative investigators at distinguished universities, research institutes, and medical schools across the United States who span the full range of leading-edge biological and biomedical research. It identifies them through multilevel, peer-reviewed competitions and employs them within the context of HHMI's relationship with their "host institution." HHMI's philosophy is to support "people, not projects," and HHMI provides long-term, flexible funding to enable its investigators to pursue their scientific interests wherever they lead. HHMI currently employs approximately 350 investigators from more than 70 such host institutions, along with more than 2,000 of their scientific staff.

Who are the HHMI investigators?
There are approximately 350 HHMI investigators at more than 70 universities, research institutes, and medical schools around the country. These investigators are HHMI employees who also maintain their faculty positions at their host institutions. The success of HHMI's "people, not projects" philosophy can be seen in the high productivity and breakthrough insights generated by HHMI investigators. Fourteen HHMI investigators have been awarded Nobel prizes and more than 130 current investigators have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

HHMI scientists represent a wide range of biomedical research disciplines—from chemistry, neuroscience, and bioinformatics to structural biology, immunology, and clinical genetics. They include mathematicians, physicists, engineers, physicians, chemists, and classically trained molecular and cellular biologists. Using in vitro systems, as well as model organisms, they exploit a range of technologies to seek insights into human disease and fundamental biological questions. They have been involved in many research advances, from the discovery of genes related to cancer, heart disease, obesity, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and other diseases to new insights about how organisms develop, cells communicate, the sense of smell works, or learning and memory occur.

What kind of research do HHMI investigators conduct?
Collectively, HHMI's investigators push the bounds of knowledge in many of the most contemporary areas in biomedical research. Widely recognized for their creativity and productivity, these researchers have made many important research advances. Fourteen HHMI investigators have been honored with the Nobel Prize—their pioneering work includes discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system, research on the structure and function of cellular channels, the identification of key genes regulating organ development and programmed cell death, and discoveries of how changes of synaptic function in the nervous system are central for learning and memory.

Major advances in recent years have also included the development of a non-invasive test for genetic mutations associated with colon cancer; the identification of a compound in clinical trials that has successfully treated patients whose chronic myeloid leukemia failed to respond to standard treatment with Gleevec; the development of gene microarrays and "protein chips," enabling researchers to simultaneously measure the function of thousands of genes or proteins; and the creation of human embryonic stem cell lines made available for researchers worldwide.

How often does HHMI appoint new investigators?
Selection of new investigators usually occurs every three years through national competitions. To maximize the impact of HHMI's investigator competitions on the biomedical sciences and to capitalize on new opportunities that may arise, competitions are sometimes focused on a particular research area or investigator career stage. Two investigator competitions were held in 2006 and 2007, leading to the appointment of 15 new patient oriented researchers in 2007 and 56 new investigators in 2008.

How are HHMI investigators selected?
Since the early 1990s, investigators have been selected through rigorous national competitions with the aim of identifying researchers with the potential to make significant contributions to science. Prior to 2006, HHMI solicited nominations for these competitions from more than 200 distinguished universities and academic health centers around the country, inviting each institution to nominate two to four of their most innovative researchers, focusing on those in the ascending phase of their career. In 2006, HHMI announced its first open investigator competition, inviting scientists with outstanding patient-oriented research programs at 121 institutions to apply directly.

In appointing investigators, the Institute is guided by the principle of "people, not projects." Specifically, the Institute seeks talented and productive scientists who identify and rigorously pursue significant biological questions; push their chosen field into new areas of inquiry, develop new tools and methods that enable creative experimental approaches, and forge links between basic biology and medicine.

Applicants are evaluated by review committees of distinguished scientists consisting largely of current and past members of the Institute's Medical Advisory and Scientific Review Boards, and by HHMI's scientific staff. At the end of the process, the most highly rated applicants are invited to become HHMI investigators. Those who accept are appointed for five-year terms, which may be renewed after a rigorous review process.

What is the relationship between HHMI and host institutions?
HHMI and its host institutions collaborate in the pursuit of science through long-term agreements. Once selected, investigators continue to be based at their host institutions, but become HHMI employees and derive their entire salaries and benefits from the Institute. The collaboration agreement also provides for payment to the host institution for a researcher's laboratory space.

Investigators retain their faculty positions and continue to participate in teaching and other professional activities at their university or research institute. Their research groups, which typically include 10–25 students, postdoctoral associates, and technicians, some of whom are HHMI employees, are supported by HHMI field staff throughout the country.

How is appointment as an HHMI investigator different from receiving a research grant from the National Institutes of Health or another funding source?
By employing investigators and providing direct administrative support to its laboratories, HHMI engages in the direct conduct of research rather than providing funding that is administered by grantee institutions. In addition, the "people, not projects" principle means that investigators' five-year appointments ensure long-term funding with no requirement of annual reports or renewals. Investigators are thus free to follow their scientific instincts and to pursue new opportunities as soon as they arise. Investigators have the freedom to explore and, if necessary, to change the direction of their research—sometimes dramatically. Moreover, they have support to follow their ideas through to fruition—even if that process takes a very long time.

Do HHMI investigators receive outside support for their research from other agencies?
While the Institute itself does not accept funds from any outside agency, HHMI encourages its investigators to seek competitive research grant support. External funding provides flexibility to support certain activities that the Institute is not able to or does not provide for, and also allows an investigator to phase fully into such funding in the event that he or she ceases to be employed by HHMI.

Commercially sponsored research—industry funding under terms that would give the funder rights to intellectual property developed in an HHMI laboratory—is not permitted.

How are HHMI investigators reviewed?
The renewal of an investigator's five-year appointment is dependent on a rigorous peer-review process that centers on an evaluation of the originality and creativity of the investigator's work relative to others in the field, as well as the investigator's plan for future research. Those investigators whose appointments are not renewed are phased out over a period of several years to facilitate their ability to obtain other funding for their research.

Do HHMI investigators engage in any activities other than research?
HHMI investigators are expected to devote at least 75 percent of their total effort to the direct conduct of biomedical research. Investigators may spend up to 25 percent of their effort on related activities, such as teaching, consulting, and administrative duties.

Do HHMI investigators form research collaborations with or consult for for-profit companies?
The core principle in all of HHMI's policies is that science comes first. HHMI believes that interactions between academic and industrial research can promote useful innovations, such as faster development of products that ease suffering and save lives. Faster commercialization of research is important, but it must not come at the expense of academic vitality and integrity. HHMI's policies seek a balance between enabling positive interaction with industry colleagues and minimizing potential distractions and conflicts of interest.

How does HHMI handle patents and licenses?
HHMI encourages the prompt transfer of the results of its investigators' research to practical application, and recognizes that patenting and licensing of inventions are usually necessary steps in this process. HHMI also expects that unique research resources arising in HHMI laboratories will be made available to the scientific research community for free or at a reasonable cost.

What is the relationship between the HHMI investigator program and the Janelia Farm Research Campus?
The Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia expands the Institute's research program and complements the investigator program by providing a unique environment for small research teams. Scientists at Janelia Farm focus on two research areas:

• The identification of general principles that govern how information is processed by neuronal circuits; and
  
  
• The development of imaging technologies and computational methods for image analysis.

The campus is a natural extension of HHMI's commitment to offering creative scientists freedom from constraints that limit their ability to do groundbreaking research. While many researchers thrive in the more traditional environment available to HHMI investigators at host institutions, the Institute believes some types of research are better served by a more collaborative, interdisciplinary approach. By adding Janelia Farm to its research program, the Institute intends to broaden its reach in fostering successful science. HHMI investigators at host institutions also have the opportunity to visit and carry out a portion of their work at Janelia Farm.

How else does HHMI support science?
In addition to its investigator program and the Janelia Farm Research Campus, the Institute also fosters science and science education through its grants programs. Through its grants, HHMI supports the efforts of scientists and educators, colleges and universities, and biomedical research organizations. Since 1988, HHMI has awarded approximately $1.5 billion in grants. These grants are transforming the ways research is conducted and science is taught and understood.

The largest privately funded education initiative of its kind in the United States, HHMI's grants program is enhancing science education for students at all levels, from the earliest grades through advanced training. HHMI also awards grants in support of undergraduate faculty to empower leading scientists to work more closely with undergraduates and improve science education. Through its International Program, HHMI seeks to create a global network of scientists who make important contributions outside the U.S. research community.