NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Leidos announced today that it has partnered with the National Institutes of Health to create a program that matches promising but unfunded NIH research proposals with alternative sources of financing from the private sector.
Through the program, called OnPAR — short for Online Partnership to Accelerate Research — participating private organizations will be able to select research projects to fund based on their specific research priority areas and requirements. Leidos will manage the overall program including its processes and website.
"OnPAR presents another avenue to fund important biomedical research," Jim Pannucci, Leidos director of life sciences, said in a statement. "The program will revolutionize the scientific funding environment and foster more discoveries at a faster pace to benefit and improve global health."
Initial OnPAR member organizations include the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Children's Tumor Foundation, the JDRF, the Melanoma Research Alliance, the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, and the Parent Project Muscular Distrophy.
As the program progresses, Leidos expects additional foundations pharmaceutical companies, and other life sciences funding organizations will join OnPAR. The company added that it also aims to expand the program globally.