ISBER Working Groups

Biorepository Funding & Promotion
Organizer: Sara Loud and Hollie Schmidt

As the establishers of a research biorepository, we understand why our resource and others like it are so important. For example, biorepositories provide samples to scientists without access to a large clinical base and by supporting multiple research teams, they enable economies of scale to be realized, thus making efficient use of limited funding resources. However, we have faced difficulties when applying for grants from funding agencies to support our repository. One difficulty is that grant processes at funding organizations are often geared toward investigator-initated, hypothesis-driven research projects rather than research resources. Another difficulty we have encountered is an apparent lack of appreciation within funding organizations for the benefits we provide to the scientific community. If other repositories have faced the same or similar difficulties in generating support for their efforts, perhaps by working together we can better understand and overcome them.

Issues
What obstacles are faced by biorepositories when applying for funding from research funding organizations such as the NIH?
How biorepositories are perceived by funders (or those influential in the funding process)?
Whether/how biorepositories can more successfully work with traditional funding channels, or whether/how we can identify or help to create new funding sources outside the traditional channels

Possible Outcomes
Unless this topic has been extensively explored already, a good first step would be the creation of a fact-finding document or white paper based on input from a variety of biorepository and funding agency officials. Next steps could be chosen by the working group based on the needs identified through the fact-finding process.

Publications of the Biorepository Funding & Promotion Working Group: 

• ISBER Cost Recovery Report February 2010 is available to ISBER members-only in the ISBER Digital Library.  To access, please log in to the Members Only area, click on Digital Library, then ISBER Working Groups.

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