The UNCF/Merck Science Initiative was launched in 1995 with a $20 million grant from The Merck Company Foundation/Merck. In 2005, The Merck Company Foundation/Merck announced a five-year renewal of our commitment to UNCF with a $13 million grant. The Company has also provided $3 million to support the summer intern stipends of the undergraduate Fellows since 1995.

Each year, the UNCF/Merck Science Initiative provides scholarship and fellowship support to 37 outstanding African-American students who are pursuing studies and careers in the biological and chemical sciences. Awards are made at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels, and administered by UNCF. The Initiative is aimed at key transition points in education: Undergraduate students entering their final academic year; graduate students who are midway through their dissertation research; and post-graduate students entering their post-doctoral training.

Awardees are selected through a national competition open to all eligible students at colleges and universities throughout the United States. The awards provide financial support, hands-on training, mentoring relationships and institutional support to help the UNCF/Merck Fellows devote their attention to education. Undergraduate scholars also receive paid internships for two summers at Merck Research Laboratories, where Merck scientists volunteer to mentor all Fellows. Mentoring is a key program component, with mentors serving as teachers, career advisors and friends helping to ensure that the Fellows move seamlessly from one educational level to the next. Merck scientists also benefit from their experience as mentors, with many remaining in contact with Fellows after the fellowship is completed.

The Program also brings together all current awardees annually for three days of scientific symposia and poster sessions, as well as activities centered on relationship-building and networking with one another and scientists at Merck.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.