Medical research in Delaware is getting a major financial boost.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the State of Delaware announced Friday at the University of Delaware's STAR campus that they’re awarding Delaware’s new ACCEL program $25 million to fuel new medical research in the area.
NIH is giving $20 million to ACCEL from the NIH’s Institutional Development Award or IDeA program that helps states that are under-represented in NIH funding. The money will provide ACCEL seed funding for new research initiatives in clinical and translational medicine with the goal of putting research to practical use.
"We believe that we have an opportunity to take some of the great findings in the laboratory and really help to translate that into something much larger," said ACCEL program director Stuart Binder-Macleod. "Whether that be something from the laboratory, bringing that to the bedside, or if it's work that is being done at the bedside already, bring it to a larger audience by influencing healthcare policy in way that impact people's lives in a positive way."
The program is also focused on growth in a variety of other areas mentoring, recruitment of mid-career professionals, and community engagement.
“We think that it’s critical that we get patients and the community involved in helping to define research priorities and helping us to conduct research," said Binder-Macleod. "Also just providing opportunities for individuals in the state to engage in clinical trials, We think that it’s really going to help translate our findings into the larger community.”
Binder-Macleod adds that his team rushed to put an application in almost three years ago when the program was first created but initially received a poor score.
“We decided that the weaknesses that were identified we thought that we could really address," said Binder-Macleod. "We kept together as a team and over the next twelve months we put together what we thought was a much stronger application and in fact we were rewarded. We went from worst to best.”
The $20 million from NIH will be given in $4 million installments over 5 years. In addition, the State of Delaware is contributing $1 million a year over the next 5 years.
Binder-Macleod says this grant should pave the way for future funding, and develop investigators able to compete to bring millions in research dollars to the state. State and school officials say those dollars mean new jobs.
Christiana Care Health System, Nemours, and the Medical University of South Carolina are collaborating with UD on the ACCEL program – and contributing just over $3 million in matching funds
