Medical scientists just starting at universities have been, more and more often, left empty-handed when the federal government awards grants. To offset this, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to medical research, announced a new program that will award $300-million to as many as 70 young scientists. The Early Career Scientist Program will pay salaries and provide research money for people who have held tenure-track positions for only two to six years, with the goal of supporting them through the early period before they are likely to get a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The goal of the new program is to open the pool of money to more scientists at an early stage, said the institute's vice president and chief scientific officer, when they are most likely to produce new and innovative ideas, noting that the institute sets criteria different from the review process used by the NIH in order to broaden the pool of successful applicants. The institute's review criteria will be based not only on applicants' past achievements but also on their creativity and innovation to encourage young scientists to pursue "fringe interests" beyond their postdoctoral work.