In 2000, the NCRG awarded a contract to Harvard Medical School’s Division on Addictions to establish the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders. Modeled after the National Institutes of Health, the Institute supports both internal core gambling research and competitively funded external research at prestigious institutions worldwide, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Yale University School of Medicine and McGill University. Scientific advisory panels evaluate research proposals and determine through peer review the research to be funded. The Institute’s internal research program is led by Dr. Howard Shaffer, the director of the Division on Addictions, whose research into gambling addiction has pioneered the field. In 2005, the Division on Addictions, and with it the Institute, moved to the Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School.