UCLA received a five-year $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to  support this NeuroEngineering program. These funds were provided to the UCLA NET Program through the NSF IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Training) Program, and included support for student stipends and expenses, specialized research equipment, and for neuroengineering seminars and guest speakers. UCLA was one of only twenty-one institutions nationwide chosen in FY 99-00 to receive an IGERT grant. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to facilitate the establishment of innovative, research-based graduate programs that will train a diverse group of scientists and engineers to be well-prepared to take advantage of a broad spectrum of career options. The IGERT program provides doctoral institutions with an opportunity to develop new, well-focused multidisciplinary graduate programs that transcend organizational boundaries and unite faculty from several departments or institutions to establish a highly interactive, collaborative environment for both training and research. The IGERT grant provided support to establish the NET Program, and a new T32 is currently being prepared for submission to NIH.