The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hopes that a newly established annual fellowship programme will help reel in a diverse mix of top-notch PhDs, PharmDs, DVMs and MDs. “We're trying to recruit a broad mix of the brightest researchers and clinicians, with the fellowship as a way to recruit future FDA employees,” says Frank Torti, the agency's new chief scientist who fast-tracked the programme's creation (see Nature 453, 560; 2008). So far, interest in the programme, a two-year stint combining coursework and research, has been strong. By its 30 August deadline, the agency had received more than 600 applications for its 40 positions.

In addition to MDs and clinicians, Torti wants to recruit pharmaceutical professionals, epidemiologists, statisticians and psychologists to tackle new scientific areas at the agency. Whether they have FDA, industry or academic aspirations, Torti says the FDA fellows will be hot commodities — especially in pioneering research areas such as regenerative medicine. Torti expects six to ten will specialize in biomedical engineering. “With so many novel devices coming through, it is a booming area of regulation,” he says.

As the FDA regulates 25% of the manufactured goods that make up the US gross domestic product, it connects fellows with a wide array of industries seeking candidates who understand the inner workings of the FDA. Academia may seem an odd beneficiary, but Torti says people who understand FDA regulatory processes will be more effective in designing trials to meet FDA requirements.

Fellows will be chosen by a 'mutual selection' process. Eligible applicants will choose from 100–120 preceptors working in the various FDA centres, which specialize in the evaluation of drugs, biologics, devices, food safety, nutrition and veterinary medicine. The preceptors will then rank those fellows. Sanjai Kumar, a preceptor and chief of the malaria research programme at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, says he will look for applicants who express a clear desire to forge a career in the regulatory sciences. Most fellows will be housed at the White Oak facility in Silver Spring, Maryland, but some will take courses electronically at the National Center for Toxicologic Research near Little Rock, Arkansas.

First-year courses will cover FDA law, policy, management, trial design, epidemiology and statistics. Over 70% of time will be devoted to a hypothesis-driven research project.