Work With TRND

By collaborating with TRND, partners with promising new therapeutic candidates benefit from the significant rare and neglected disease preclinical development expertise of TRND scientists. No funds are awarded through TRND. In general, the program leverages internal resources and preclinical and regulatory expertise to support the development of promising, well-validated therapeutic candidates from as early as lead compound optimization through submission of an Investigational New Drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Interested investigators undergo initial pre-screening to assess overall fit for the TRND program prior to submitting a formal proposal. Full proposals are rigorously assessed by TRND staff, with additional input from staff in other NIH institutes and centers and from external drug development experts. When a collaboration is initiated, TRND forms a project team and a project plan is developed, including a timeline, milestones, deliverables and “go/no-go” decision points.

Learn more about working with TRND:

• How to Request a TRND Collaboration: Overview of general proposal process and detailed instructions for interested investigators
• Considerations for TRND Collaborators: Minimal data requirements and scope limitations
• Intellectual Property and TRND: How TRND handles background versus new intellectual property created during the project
• TRND Project Implementation and Conduct: Project management, oversight and governance
• Updates to Prior TRND Proposals: How to amend a prior proposal and what needs to be achieved in the interim

TRND Operational Model

TRND partnerships allow scientists to work with NCATS researchers to move promising therapeutics into human clinical trials. External partners benefit from the rare and neglected disease drug development capabilities, expertise, clinical resources and regulatory expertise of the TRND program in a highly collaborative environment.

TRND uses a proposal process to select collaborators who may come from academic laboratories, not-for-profit organizations and for-profit companies. Foreign organizations also may seek to partner with TRND.

Project Support

TRND is not a grant-based funding program, and partners do not receive funds from TRND. The program provides in-kind support, including dedicated project management and drug development expertise, to advance the project. Partners provide drug starting points for the project and the ongoing disease area expertise. As with a biopharmaceutical company, projects that do not meet key scientific milestones or fail to adhere to timelines may be discontinued.