In 2008, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund launched an institutional award program for five-year institutional training awards providing $500,000 a year to bridge the gap between the population and computational sciences and the laboratory-based biological sciences. The award supports the training of researchers between existing concentrations of research strength in population approaches to human health and in basic biological sciences. The goal is to establish training programs by partnering researchers working in schools of medicine and schools (or academic divisions) of public health.  The first Grant Recipients were awarded in 2009.