Leidos, a health, national security and engineering solutions company is teaming up with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to launch OnPAR (Online Partnership to Accelerate Research) that will provide new funding opportunities for scientific projects. The Online Partnership to Accelerate Research (OnPAR) was conceived to re-accelerate the biomedical research and development enterprise by seeking a larger return on NIH’s peer review investment on research proposals evaluated in the top 30% in each NIH Institute and Center. Leidos has developed the OnPAR processes and website and will manage the overall program.
There is currently a surplus of high-quality biomedical research applications that merit funding through alternative sources. The goal of OnPAR is to match quality biomedical research projects with priority areas of interest of private foundations, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies and/or other private biomedical research funders. OnPAR will eventually provide access to a global pipeline of research projects that can either supplement internal projects or provide innovative new ideas for future medical products.
“OnPAR presents another avenue to fund important biomedical research,” said Jim Pannucci, Leidos Director, Life Sciences. “The program will revolutionize the scientific funding environment and foster more discoveries at a faster pace to benefit and improve global health.”
Research projects will be considered and funded by OnPAR funding organization members based on their specific research priority areas and requirements. For the pilot project, funding organization members include the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, theChildren’s Tumor Foundation, the JDRF, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, and the Parent Project Muscular Distropy. These foundations were selected to span different disease areas and varied foundation sizes.
As the program progresses, OnPAR is planning on increasing its membership to include additional foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and other life sciences funding organizations across varied disease areas. In addition, Leidos foresees expanding the program globally to present an alternative option to the traditional government grant mechanisms.
