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National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services
NCRR Strategic Plan 2009-2013: Translating Research from Basic Discovery to Improved Patient Care

DiagramAbout NCRR

NCRR unites innovative research teams with the power of shared resources, multiplying the opportunities to improve human health. Together, NCRR’s four integrated and complementary areas of focus accelerate and enhance research along the entire continuum of biomedical science. The following highlights some of the major NCRR center programs and resources:

Biomedical Technology

Biomedical Technology Research Resources (BTRRs)

Create critical, often unique, technology and methods for application to a broad range of basic, translational, and clinical research. Foster synergistic interactions of technical and biomedical expertise, both within the resources and through intensive collaborations with other leading laboratories, to provide other biomedical researchers with training and access to new tools and methodologies.

Shared Instrumentation and High-End Instrumentation Grants

Provide funding to NIH-supported investigators to acquire expensive, commercially available equipment.

Comparative Medicine

Comparative Medicine Resources

Support a broad array of high-quality animal models and biological materials; safeguard the health and welfare of laboratory animals; and provide career training opportunities in specialized areas of translational science.

National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs)

Foster the development of animal models, such as monkeys and baboons, facilitating research on diseases including HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and cancer.

Research Infrastructure

Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMIs)

Develop and enhance the research infrastructure of minority institutions to expand their capacity for conducting basic, translational, and clinical research.

Institutional Development Award (IDeA)

Increase the capacity in states that historically have not received significant levels of competitive research funding from NIH through the following two programs:

Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBREs)

Support thematic multidisciplinary centers that strengthen institutional research capacity by expanding and developing biomedical faculty capability and enhancing research infrastructure that encompasses the full spectrum of the basic and clinical sciences.

IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBREs)

Support statewide networks of institutions with a multidisciplinary, thematic scientific focus to strengthen the research capabilities of biomedical faculty, and provide access to biomedical resources for promising undergraduate students.

Clinical Research

Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs)

Support a national consortium of academic health centers that share a common vision to reduce the time it takes for laboratory discoveries to become treatments for patients and to engage communities in clinical research. Train the next generation of clinical researchers.

Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPAs)

Bring together biomedical and behavioral researchers, educators, community groups, and other interested organizations in partnerships to create and disseminate programs that give K–12 students and teachers and the general public a better understanding of life sciences.