The Dompé Foundation is offering 16 scholarships to support neuroscience and neurobiology students enrolled at US universities for the academic year 2023/2024. This funding opportunity, which honors the legacy of the only female Italian Nobel laureate in Medicine, is intended for promising candidates from any nationality that have already been admitted to a Master’s, PhD or post-doc program. With a total budget of up to about 1 million USD, the Foundation has doubled from the previous two years its funding for the US project, which has now reached its third edition. Applications may be sent on the Foundation’s website until December 31st, 2023.  

The “Rita Levi Montalcini” Scholarships are part of a more extensive program to support the higher education of young talents in STEM fields, which has seen the Dompé Foundation allocate around 8,5 million euros in the first four years of operation. Although the program supports undergraduate students at all levels of study, it especially focuses on master’s, PhDs and postdocs. In terms of area of study, the undisputed stars are the life sciences, which engage 90% of the recipients. The degree programs sponsored by the Foundation provide students with a multidisciplinary education, a strong grounding in new technologies and innovation principles, and the opportunity to access an international network: these ingredients are key for those who intend to be at the forefront of innovation and research today.  

The Foundation has awarded 81 scholarships to date, but this number will exceed 100 by the first half of 2024, when all the winners of the 2023/2024 calls for applications will be designated. The scholars study across 21 top-tier universities: 10 in Italy (Humanitas University, Politecnico di Milano, Bocconi University, University of Milan, University of Pavia, University of Verona, La Sapienza University, Vanvitelli University, University of Bari Aldo Moro, and University of Trento), 10 in the United States (Stanford University, Harvard Medical School, Yale University, Cornell University, University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, The University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis, Temple University in Philadelphia) and one in the United Kingdom (Queen Mary University of London). As far as the nationality is concerned, beneficiaries come from 14 different countries including Europe (Italy, Cyprus, Spain, and Moldova), Asia (China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Palestine, Singapore, Iran, Kuwait), America (the United States and Brazil), and Africa (Nigeria), while gender-wise there is substantial parity with 52% male and 48% female students.

Established in 2020 by Sergio Dompé, the Foundation seeks to break down barriers to higher education for promising low-income students; favor the development of the careers of the future, especially within the life sciences; help reduce the gender disparity in the STEM fields by supporting the studies of the most talented women. The Foundation’s commitment to the progress of scientific knowledge is part of Dompé farmaceutici’s long lasting investments in R&D and innovative startups.