Funding from external sources is the lifeline for most biomedical research scientists. In the USA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), composed of 27 institutes and centers, is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research. One of these centers, the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) provides financial support and resources to clinical or translational scientists working to understand human disease. Through the Division of Comparative Medicine, the NCRR funds projects focused on the development and use of model organisms to understand, diagnose, prevent and treat disease. Here, officials within the NCRR's Division of Comparative Medicine discuss some of the funding opportunities and resources available to researchers who use model organisms, and their perspectives on the future of model organism research.