SEATO also provided research funding and grants in agriculture and medical fields.[28] In 1959, SEATO set up the Cholera Research Laboratory in Bangkok, later establishing a second Cholera Research Laboratory in Dhaka, East Pakistan.[28] The Dhaka laboratory soon became the world's leading cholera research facility and was later renamed the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh.[29] SEATO was also interested in literature, and a SEATO Literature Award was created and given to writers from member states.[30]