Simmonses donate $3 million for collaborative medical research
Lily Chun
Issue date: 8/22/08 Section: News
The Virginia and L.E. Simmons Family Foundation donated $3 million in May to enable researchers from Rice, Texas Children's Hospital and Methodist Hospital to work together to conduct biomedical research.
Simmons said there were two factors behind the birth of the grant: One has to do with cross-disciplinary research involving genetics, mental sciences, imaging, physics, biochemistry and mathematics; another has to do with the increasing difficulty of securing funding from the National Institute of Health, which he said is a key source of medical-oriented financing.
"Unless you're a proven researcher - 40 years or older - it's really hard to get funds from them," Simmons said. "The younger researchers, or research dollars for new projects that don't have a track record, are getting harder to find."
In order to receive the grant, researchers from at least two of the three institutions must collaborate together.
"We really want people to learn how to work together and draw in other disciplines," Simmons said. "In the past, Rice hasn't done a lot with Methodist or Texas Children's Hospital, but there are great projects that are being done now with terrific success."
Simmons said he hopes the grant will galvanize researchers to work together to accomplish more than they could by themselves.
"While any type of research is important, I think collaborative research within the Texas Medical Center and Houston is going to be the secret to long-term success and breakthrough," Simmons said. "There's too much going on in the field, and there's so much expertise in the medical center, that not to do it collaboratively would be a terrible waste of time, talent, opportunity and potential duplication."
Simmons said he realized that the three institutions needed to research collaboratively because he is a trustee at Rice and TCH as well as a member of the board of Methodist Hospital.
"I have an unusually fortunate position of being able to see what the plans are and objectives are and resources are at each of these institutions," Simmons said. "All three of these institutions are all building similar size and cost research centers, and they're all going to be finished at the same time, so they're all kind of excited about this idea of collaboration."
Simmons said there were two factors behind the birth of the grant: One has to do with cross-disciplinary research involving genetics, mental sciences, imaging, physics, biochemistry and mathematics; another has to do with the increasing difficulty of securing funding from the National Institute of Health, which he said is a key source of medical-oriented financing.
"Unless you're a proven researcher - 40 years or older - it's really hard to get funds from them," Simmons said. "The younger researchers, or research dollars for new projects that don't have a track record, are getting harder to find."
In order to receive the grant, researchers from at least two of the three institutions must collaborate together.
"We really want people to learn how to work together and draw in other disciplines," Simmons said. "In the past, Rice hasn't done a lot with Methodist or Texas Children's Hospital, but there are great projects that are being done now with terrific success."
Simmons said he hopes the grant will galvanize researchers to work together to accomplish more than they could by themselves.
"While any type of research is important, I think collaborative research within the Texas Medical Center and Houston is going to be the secret to long-term success and breakthrough," Simmons said. "There's too much going on in the field, and there's so much expertise in the medical center, that not to do it collaboratively would be a terrible waste of time, talent, opportunity and potential duplication."
Simmons said he realized that the three institutions needed to research collaboratively because he is a trustee at Rice and TCH as well as a member of the board of Methodist Hospital.
"I have an unusually fortunate position of being able to see what the plans are and objectives are and resources are at each of these institutions," Simmons said. "All three of these institutions are all building similar size and cost research centers, and they're all going to be finished at the same time, so they're all kind of excited about this idea of collaboration."
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