Collaborative Research Initiatives

A priority of the ASRM Research Institute will be COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH INITIATIVES.

The current ASRM Strategic Plan calls for “partnership(s) with federal agencies and global organizations to promote, support, and advance research and training in reproductive science and medicine.”

There are times when reproductive research would benefit by such collaborative efforts. For example, the NICHD-funded Reproductive Medicine Network may be able to perform a large RCT that answers a critical question, but can only be undertaken with additional resources provided by the ASRM Research Institute to cover expenses precluded from federal funding. As such, the ASRM Research Institute is interested in participating in such collaborations that will move forward the Reproductive Research agenda and impact care. It is envisioned that cooperative agreements involving the ASRM Institute and NIH-funded investigators with common research goals can be established to complement what the federal grants cannot fund due to existing restrictions (such as fertilization of human eggs or embryo biopsy).

Such collaborative efforts could markedly enhance the impact and hasten clinical application of observations based on federally funded research projects. Such investigations could follow mechanistic studies in laboratory animals or validate basic research on human gamete development by facilitating the performance of fertilization and embryo transfer studies or by complementing observational data involving the manipulation and transfer of human embryos.