The Amgen Foundation in Thousand Oaks, California, has announced a partnership with ten of the nation's leading universities to launch Amgen Scholars, a $25 million, eight-year initiative designed to provide research experience for students interested in pursuing a graduate degree and a career in science.

The institutions will select program participants from their student bodies and from other accredited four-year colleges and universities in the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories. In addition to research work, the students will take part in an annual three-day symposium in California. During the first phase of the program, which will extend through 2010, each school will receive $1 million over four years.

Participating institutions include the California Institute of Technology; Columbia University/Barnard College; Howard University; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, San Diego; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of Washington. MIT will serve as the program's national office and will receive an additional $1 million over the next four years.

"The experience of hands-on research is an extraordinarily effective way to encourage undergraduate students to pursue careers in science," said MIT president Susan Hockfield. "By providing access to exciting research programs and dynamic industry leaders, the innovative Amgen Scholars program will engage and inspire young people at a time when the education of the next generation of scientists is more important than ever."