Harnessing Academia, Government, and Industry

Abstract

One of the goals of the recent workshop, “An Eye on Glaucoma: New Opportunities for Treatment,” was to highlight areas of glaucoma research that, with appropriate funding, are ripe for major advancement for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Another goal was the exploration of collaborative partnership and the process for facilitating translation of these areas, not just for glaucoma but for all diseases affecting visual function. In this article, I address the second of the two goals. Since the National Eye Institute (NEI) was established in 1968, its mission has been to “conduct and support research, training, health information dissemination, and other programs with respect to blinding eye diseases, visual disorders, mechanisms of visual function, preservation of sight, and the special health problems and requirements of the blind” in all areas of vision research. As part of the federal government, the NEI has distinct guidelines and rules that govern how it can foster vision science along the continuum from basic research, to clinical application, to acceptance and adoption by the medical community as the standard of care. Vision research is a collaborative process shown to be successful through engaged scientific discussion, investigator-driven hypotheses, and responsible program management and support. How does the vision research community best interact with the NEI to foster successful vision research? Most members of the community are familiar with the more traditional mechanisms of interaction (i.e., grants and contracts), but the topic “Harnessing Academia, Government, and Industry” gives us the opportunity to discuss other, perhaps less well-known partnership mechanisms. The purpose of this article is to explore the NEI toolbox and the various support mechanisms available for fostering research in eye disease, through partnerships between NEI, academia, and industry. NEI AND THE VISION COMMUNITY: SUPPORT MECHANISMS The NEI conducts and supports laboratory and patient-oriented research through both intramural and extramural programs. The intramural program encompasses strong basic, translational, and clinical programs in molecular genetics, retinal degenerations, retinal circuits, neuroprotection, angiogenesis, immunology, and visual processing. The extramural program supports a diverse portfolio of vision research on retina; cornea; lens and cataract; glaucoma; strabismus, amblyopia, and visual processing; low vision and its rehabilitation; oculomotor systems and neuro-ophthalmology; myopia and refractive error; ocular genetics; ocular inflammation; infections; and immunology. The most well-known mechanism of partnership between the federal government and its respective research communities is through the Office of Extramural Research’s contracts and grants programs. The NEI’s Division of Extramural Research (http://www.nei.nih.gov/funding/) supports approximately 1600 research grants and training awards made to scientists at more than 250 medical centers, hospitals, universities, and other institutions across the country and around the world. In fiscal year 2011, the NEI had a budget of $700.8 million. More than 86% of the total NEI budget was spent extramurally on grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with the vision research community (Fig. 1). Given that the focus of the workshop was glaucoma, it is worth noting that approximately 10% of the extramural budget was directly spent on glaucoma and the optic neuropathies. Other Mechanisms for Collaboration There are other mechanisms, perhaps less well known than the extramurally supported grants, collaborative agreements, and contracts that can be used to partner academia, industry, and government. They include the Material Transfer Agreement (MTA), the Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), the Clinical Trials Agreement (CTA), and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Agreements. The MTA is used for the exchange of materials with outside organizations for research purposes. In 2003, the NEI had 20 MTAs with outside organizations; in 2010, the number was more than 100. This mechanism—although technically a type of partnership—is not necessarily the best mechanism to use in the spirit of a “true” research partnership,