History and Funding
The SPIRE Postdoctoral Fellowship Program was one of the first grantees to receive funding in 1999 from the special Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Award (IRACDA) program, created by the Minority Opportunities in Research (MORE) division of the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Currently, there are eleven special IRACDA program grantees.

The goal of SPIRE was to address the growing crisis in science education by investing in tomorrow's science scholars and educators and providing them with a holistic approach to postgraduate professional development. SPIRE strives to blend an outstanding research environment with broad professional development activities and hands-on classroom experiences for those scientists who want to combine research with undergraduate and graduate education.

SPIRE was first funded from 1999 through 2004 by the NIGMS, with supplemental funds from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS).

SPIRE is currently in its ninth year of funding from the NIGMS, with supplemental funds from NHGRI. The current funding cycle is from 2004 through 2009.