National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

NCATS' mission is to turn research observations into health solutions through translational science. We work to develop or enhance the development, testing, and implementation of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide range of diseases and condition

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was established to transform the translational science process so that new treatments and cures for disease can be delivered to patients faster. NCATS strives to develop innovations to reduce, remove or bypass costly and time-consuming bottlenecks in the translational research pipeline in an effort to speed the delivery of new drugs, diagnostics and medical devices to patients.

See above.

Biomedical investigators at any nonprofit or for-profit organization, company, or institution engaged in biomedical research.

NCATS is all about getting more treatments to all patients more quickly. There are more than 10,000 known rare diseases and only a few hundred have safe, effective treatments. A novel drug, device or intervention can take 14 years and $2 billion to develop, with a failure rate exceeding 95%. NCATS is directly addressing this problem by discovering new technologies and other approaches that could greatly accelerate the process of developing and deploying solutions that can be used by all translational researchers. The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program supports a national, collaborative consortium focused on bringing more treatments to all people more quickly through advancing clinical and translational science. The Trial Innovation Network, inclusive of Trial Innovation Centers and a Recruitment Innovation Center, are intended to serve as a national model for innovation in clinical trial management and operations, participant recruitment, and will facilitate the implementation of multi-site clinical studies by the CTSA network. The CTSA Collaborative and Innovation Acceleration Awards supports synergistic activities that accelerate the translational research process through collaboration and innovation. NCATS supports a network of research consortia, each targeted to several related rare diseases. NCATS also supports an extensive resource of information for the public on rare diseases. NCATS supports expansion of the target landscape for therapeutic development by supporting pilot studies on druggable proteins that have largely been neglected by the research community, but are associated with rare diseases. It also supports strategies that will enable targeting biologic entities that cannot be modulated with traditional drug development of biologic strategies. In cases where a potential therapeutic has been identified for a rare disease, and a model system for testing the treatment has already been established, NCATS will support proof of concept studies to advance development of the candidate treatment. NCATS also supports early-stage development projects for generalizable translational science technologies. Through Translator, NCATS will integrate existing biomedical data to help reveal new relationships within those data and also identify novel opportunities for research. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs utilize the grant and cooperative agreement mechanisms to help eligible US based small businesses develop new translational technologies that can eventually be commercialized to provide health solutions. SBIR and STTR foster participation in innovation and entrepreneurship by women and socially/economically disadvantaged persons. The Tissue Chip program funds bioengineered devices to improve the process of predicting whether drugs will be safe or toxic in humans. The bioprinting program will generate high throughput screenable assay models of human tissues for drug discovery. Quantum Biomedical Innovations and Technologies (Qu-BIT) Program aims to generate innovative quantum-enabled sensing technologies and quantum computing approaches to provide novel capabilities in early disease detection, improving diagnostic approaches, and therapeutic strategies. The NCATS ASPIRE Program develops technology platform for improving drug discovery and pre-clinical testing of new and safer treatments.

1 to 7 years. An Electronic Transfer System is used to transfer funds.

The major elements in evaluating proposals include assessments of: (1) The scientific merit and general significance of the proposed study and its objectives; (2) the technical adequacy of the experimental design and approach; (3) the competency of the proposed investigator or group to successfully pursue the project; (4) the adequacy of the available and proposed facilities and resources; (5) the necessity of the budget components requested in relation to the proposed project; and (6) the relevance and importance to announced program objectives and (7) the availability of funds.

The initial review of applications from eligible institutions is conducted by committees comprised of authorities in various fields of biomedical research and science education, as appropriate. Each application is given a peer evaluation for merit. Recommendations for award are forwarded to the NCATS Advisory Council for the second level of review and recommendation for award.

See renewal or extension procedures in the Terms and Conditions of Award.

Principal investigators (P.I.) may question the substantive or procedural aspects of the review of their applications by communicating with the NCATS staff. A description of the NIH Peer Review Appeal procedures is available on the NIH home page http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-11-064.html