On December 8 of last year, CIRM received the insights and recommendations from a blue ribbon panel of external experts charged with evaluating the agency’s progress to date. (Here is a copy of that report, and CIRM’s press release.)
Less than a year later, on October 26, 2011 the ICOC approved the first of a three-part Opportunity Fund to address those recommendations. (A press release from October board meeting is available here.) And, just days ago on December 8th, a year to date from the expert’s report, the governing board approved the final two proposals. (That press release is available here.)
With all three programs of the Opportunity Fund approved, CIRM will be able to address the major recommendations of that panel: namely to create an agile and proactive grant program with flexible processes that synch up with industry, all geared at capturing great science and maintaining the progress of our strong research programs.
When CIRM first received the review panel’s report, the question was how could the agency address the recommendations within its legal and operational frameworks. All new science funded by CIRM has to go through a review by outside experts, which takes time, and state funds have to stay within California. To address these questions, CIRM held a brainstorming session to think about the most effective ways of meeting the recommendations.
What the CIRM science and legal offices came up with were three initiatives. The first of these, called the Strategic Partnership Funding Program, was approved at the October board meeting. This $30 million initiative responds to the review panel’s recommendation that CIRM attract industry partnerships through a funding approach that is more aligned with industry needs.
According to Elona Baum, CIRM General Counsel and Vice President of Business Development, who led the development of that program, the Strategic Partnership Funding Program will help our grantees team up with industry partners who can help them overcome regulatory issues and design effective clinical trials. These partners will also be needed to fund Phase III clinical trials.
The two pieces of the Opportunity Fund approved on December 8th are the $12 million Bridging fund, spearheaded by Patricia Olson, Executive Director of Scientific Activities, and the $15 million External Innovation Initiative, led by Ellen Feigal, Senior VP of Research and Development.
The External Innovation Initiative was developed as a way of leveraging California expertise to further great science taking place outside of California. CIRM has formed funding relationships with 12 countries, two international states, one domestic state, two foundations, and most recently CIRM’s collaborative relationship with the National Institutes of Health. (More information about those relationships is available here.) If great science is taking place in one of those jurisdictions, CIRM can facilitate a collaboration with a California scientist whose expertise will speed the science. CIRM only funds the portion of the research within California – protecting the state’s investment – but that funding can speed research toward disease therapies taking place around the world. Even if a therapy isn’t developed in California, Californians benefit from the results.
The Bridging Fund will play a critical role in keeping promising research moving forward. Imagine, you are a CIRM grantee with an Early Translational Award that produced promising results. But your funding ends, and you won’t know if you got your next CIRM award for several months. What do you do? You stop the research until you get more funding either from CIRM or from some other source. This stop and go nature of funding slows promising projects. The Bridging Fund will provide stopgap funding for those researchers who are waiting on the next big grant, keeping the research moving toward patients.
As Olson said, “I think these programs go a long way toward addressing the key concerns of the external advisory committee. Next comes implementation.”
The announcements describing each of these programs will be posted to the CIRM website in the first half of 2012.
A.A.
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