This book makes available a short but comprehensive history of the National Institutes of Health's Grant Program that built America's national biomedical research capacity and brought medical science to its current zenith. The extramural programs of the NIH, through an array of grants to non-federal institutions, constitute the largest single source of funds for the nation's biomedical research enterprise. This book traces the history of this component of the agency from its conception in the final days of World War II to the present. The author skillfully blends his descriptions of the people and events that initiated and have shaped the program with an analysis of the environment in which it has developed.
