Health Research Alliance: A National Organization Fostering Links Between Reseearch and Practice

Bulletin:

The 2008 HRA National Conference, "Accelerating Medical Discovery Through Strategic Philanthropy," on March 4-6, 2008, was an exciting event. Conference presentations have now been posted on the HRA National Conference page in the Members-Only portion of the website. CDs containing pdfs of the presentations will be mailed to participants from non-member organizations. You can still access the final agenda here. Conference proceedings are being prepared and will be posted as a pdf when they are complete.
Health Research Alliance members: Registration materials for the September, 2008 HRA Advisory Committee meeting to be hosted by The Flinn Foundation in Phoenix were emailed to members on June 9. Be sure to register by the June 30 deadline. Members click here to access an agenda as well as registration materials.
Is your organization interested in becoming a member of the Health Research Alliance? Find out more.
Health Research Alliance
P.O. Box 13901
21 T. W. Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park,
North Carolina 27709
An initial key project of the Health Research Alliance is the creation of the first comprehensive repository of health research awards made by non-governmental, not-for-profit grantmakers. Called "gHRAsp," for "Grants in the Health Research Alliance Shared Portfolio," the new database is currently under development and testing.

The need for the database was recognized in the late 1990's when the predecessor of the Health Research Alliance, the Clinical Research Alliance, attempted to quantify the investment of the private, not-for-profit sector in the career development of clinical investigators. Obtaining such information currently requires an extensive search of myriad websites. The new database will pull this information together in one location.

gHRAsp will be searchable using standard search tools, and organizations participating in the database will be required to update their information annually. The new database should be of interest to policymakers (example: to examine the scope of the financial commitment by non-governmental not-for-profit grantmakers in the area of clinical cancer research in a given year), applicants and awardees (example: to view examples of clinical research awards made by different grantmakers), and grantmaking organizations themselves (example: to examine how many privately-funded grantees are conducting research in cancer genomics).

The gHRAsp Working Group consists of:
  • T. J. Koerner (American Cancer Society), Chair
  • Maryrose Franko (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)
  • Debra McCoy (Arthritis Foundation)
  • Nancy Sung (Burroughs Wellcome Fund)
  • Debi Vought (Burroughs Wellcome Fund)
  • Kate Ahlport (Health Research Alliance)

The implementation of gHRAsp is being supported by a Lead User Experts' Team composed of representatives from several HRA organizations.