Educating Future Scientists

Significant cultural changes are urgently needed if the burgeoning scientific opportunities in biology are to be tackled by a well-prepared cadre of young scientists from all disciplines. Interdisciplinary cooperation must encompass the individual investigator, academic department, research institution, and federal funding agencies. This Policy Forum1 describes principles and recommendations that have emerged from an ongoing experiment in interdisciplinary training that since 1996 has included three cycles of grant awards to ten institutions, involving several hundred trainees and their mentors. 1: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/301/5639/1485