In an attempt to combat a shortage of veterinary researchers, the National Institutes of Health awarded the University’s College of Veterinary Medicine a five-year, $1 million grant Thursday to attract students to its molecular veterinary bioscience graduate program.

Two students will be chosen within a year, and more will be added each year, said Cathy Carlson, professor of veterinary diagnostic medicine at the veterinary college. Nine students will participate.

Trant recipients will receive a stipend of about $30,000 per year and will have their tuition paid, she said. No recipients have been named yet.

“There are open faculty positions that nobody has filled, and major industries can’t find veterinary researchers,” Carlson said.

The graduate program researches animal-borne diseases and diseases in animals that also afflict humans, such as diabetes in cats and arthritis in dogs, she said.