Jan 01 1997The Foundation approves the third and final round of funding for the National Community Development Initiative. HUD and more than 1,400 corporate and philanthropic donors will provide $253 million over the next decade and leverage more than $2 billion in local funding for community development.
Jan 01 1997Scientists in the Foundation’s rice biotechnology network discover that all cereals have essentially the same basic genes as rice, an insight that allows much of what has been learned in the rice biotechnology program to be applied to maize, wheat, sorghum, and other cereals.
Jan 01 1996The Foundation publishes a report, “Stories of Renewal: Community Building and the Future of Urban America,” a compilation of two decades of lessons drawn from community-building around the country. It becomes a nationwide guide for this burgeoning field.
Jan 01 1996The Foundation convenes experts in HIV/AIDS to find ways for industry, philanthropy, development and health agencies to collaborate in finding an AIDS vaccine that would be affordable and available throughout the world. The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) emerges from that effort, along with four other partnerships to develop and manufacture safe, effective, affordable treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and dengue fever, as well as a microbicide that women can administer on their own to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
Jan 01 1996“What Matters Most,” the National Commission on Teaching for America’s Future’s blueprint for revolutionizing the teaching profession in the United States, is widely hailed and implemented in 12 states. The Foundation conceived and funded the project.
Jan 01 1995A Foundation-funded team of American and Asian scientists clone a gene for resistance against bacterial blight, a disease that attacks rice worldwide. When transferred to susceptible varieties, the gene yields excellent resistance.
Jan 01 1994The Foundation begins the Next Step: Jobs initiative with the Corporation for Supportive Housing to integrate employment services into supportive housing centers in three cities. By 1997, employment rates double in these 3,000 supportive housing units.
Jan 01 1993The final group of Biotechnology Career Fellows is selected. Launched in 1984, this program supports 183 fellows to update their biotechnology skills and develop collaborative research projects. Many of these scientists have since risen to prominent research positions in their home countries.