The closing of the Whitaker Foundation, which provided hundreds of millions of dollars in grants for biomedical engineering education and research over the past 30 years, will leave a gaping financial hole in the scientific community when it shuts its doors on June 30.
The Washington-based foundation is credited with shepherding the field through its infancy by providing funds for the creation of biomedical engineering departments at 30 universities across the country. But Whitaker made a strategic decision years ago to close after a 30-year run, and now some in the biotechnology community fear that its exit will leave scientists in the lurch.
“The Whitaker Foundation just drove the field ofbiomedical engineering,” said Raimond Winslow, associate director of the Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a biomedical engineering professor.
Johns Hopkins received more than $20 million in grants over the years from the Whitaker Foundation, including $17 million in 1998 that enabled the university to build a new biomedical engineering building, hire 10 new faculty members and develop additional programs.
The grants were “hugely important to us,” Winslow said. “It was transforming, as it has been for the whole field.”
Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, Baltimore, also received funding from the foundation in recent years.
“The concern is, will anybody pick it up now?” said Jennie Hunter-Cevera, president of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.
The National Institutes of Health funds the majority of research grants across the country, but those dollars are not enough to sustain the field, Winslow said.
“With the foundation closing and with the dire funding situation that now exists at NIH, it’s going to have a huge effect on all life sciences research and biomedical engineering,” he said. The combination could have a “tremendously chilling effect on biomedical research.”
NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering was established in 2002. The institute’s budget of nearly $297 million (NIH’s overall 2006 budget is more than $28 billion) dipped slightly from 2005 levels.
Dr. Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, said the Whitaker Foundation served its purpose.
The foundation “nurtured the field on a number of college campuses beyond its nascent period,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s been nurtured enough to continue to thrive.”
A MAJOR LOSS
» The Whitaker Foundation is the Washington region’s biggest private foundation.
» In 2004, the organization awarded nearly $64 million in grants. The next biggest grantor was the Fannie Mae Foundation, with more than $45 million.
Source: Regional Association of Washington Grantmakers
