National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities

In 1992 the Bridges to the Future Program (Bridges to the Baccalaureate and Bridges to the Doctorate) was created in response to Public Law 106-525.  This piece of legislation recognized a national need to increase the number of well-trained minority scientists in the fields of biomedical, clinical, behavioral and health services research. The statute also suggested that increasing the number of minorities and women in the scientific, technological and engineering workforce would help eliminate health disparities in this country, as well as improve the overall health of the nation.

The Bridges to the Future Program strives to increase transfer rates, and subsequently graduation rates, of minority students from associate to baccalaureate degree-granting institutions, and from master’s to doctoral degree-granting institutions.  In doing so, the Bridges to the Future Program hopes to strengthen the biomedical, clinical, behavioral and health services arenas by increasing diversity of the professionals working in those fields.