The Society of Magnetic Resonance, created from the merger of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and The Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging is the only international, non-profit professional association devoted to the promotion of research and education in all applications of Magnetic Resonance in medicine, biology, and related fields. Members include clinicians, physicists, engineers, biochemists, chemists, and technologists. The SMR is, at present, the only society that combines both basic and applied disciplines, including clinical research, to best serve medicine and science. This merged society was founded in 1994 and has now reached a membership of over four thousand. Scientific meetings are held annually with every third year's meeting located outside the United States. In 1995, the Third Annual Meeting of the Society will be held in Nice, France from August, 19-25th, jointly with the Annual Meeting of The European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (SMRMB). An attendance of over four thousand scientists, students, and physicians is anticipated. This proposal requests funds to support, in-part, educational stipends for meritorious students and postdoctoral trainees from the U.S. whose abstracts are submitted and accepted through the regular peer review process of the Society. The Society has committed an amount of $125,000.00 derived from internal funds and corporate donations for the support of this program. Of this amount, fifty-five percent, or $68,750.00, will be available for students from the U.S. Because of the high costs of accommodations and travel from the U.S. to Nice, it is estimated that only seventy-six awards covering fifty percent of estimated costs will be made compared to 110 awards to young investigators from the U.S. in 1994 when the annual meeting was held in this country. The proposal requests supplemental funds in the amount of $30,300.00 from NIH to allow 34 additional awards. In the context of adverse funding from both peer reviewed sources as well as industrial and clinical revenue sources faced by many research laboratories, the requested support has become critical to stimulate young investigators to actively contribute their early research to the field and help bring together established researchers and students in this rapidly evolving field of medical research. Of the 1,572 abstracts accepted at the 1994 Meeting of the Society, 254 were submitted by students (16%),applying for student stipends, of whom only half received support from the student stipend mechanism, which emphasizes the critical importance of the requested support.
