The controversial California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is seeking proposals for its first grants to fund research using human embryonic stem cells.
The San Francisco-based institute will award up to $24 million during the next two years for the Scientific Excellence through Exploration and Development program and $80 million during the next four years for up to 25 comprehensive research grants.
While the scientific excellence grants are intended to bring new ideas and new investigators into the field, the comprehensive grants are for mature, ongoing studies on human embryonic stem cells by established scientists.
Details about each grant type are available at www.cirm.ca.gov/funding.
The institute is able to fund the grants because of a $150 million loan from the state that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced in July, despite ongoing litigation about the agency’s legality.
The institute’s funding of researchers has been mostly held up by lawsuits that charge that the agency is unconstitutional because it allows unelected officials to disperse money to researchers. CIRM was established in a 2004 statewide election in which more than 59 percent of the voters chose to allocate $3 billion to stem cell research in a 10-year span. A Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the institute in April, but the groups, which have anti-abortion ties, have appealed the decision.
, Katie Weeks
