User:MBC 01/Center for Translational Molecular Medicine

Center for Translational Molecular Medicine ...

The Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM) is a Dutch research organization that focuses on the development of medical technologies that enable the early diagnosis and personalized treatment of major diseases that cause mortality and diminished quality of life. The areas of disease that its research projects address are cancer, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, infectious and autoimmune diseases. Founded in 2006 with its headquarters on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, the CTMM is one of the Netherlands’ Technological Top Institutes (TTIs) and is funded via a public-private partnership between the Dutch government, academic institutions and industrial partners (most of which are Netherlands based). As at January 2012, the CTMM had a total of 112 partners, comprising large industrial companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and academic institutes, including all eight Dutch university medical centers and two technical universities (Eindhoven University of Technology and Delft University of Technology).

The CTMM provides the legal, accounting and project coordination services - for example, calls for proposals and project selection, approval, monitoring and review - to fund eighteen 5-year and three 4-year translational molecular medicine research projects and one IT infrastructure project in the Netherlands. As at January 2012, the total funding allocated to these projects was Euro 302.7 million. The CTMM also provides education and training programs for its members.

Research Projects
As at January 2012, the CTMM had 22 ongoing research projects (21 translational molecular medicine research projects and one IT infrastructure project), eighteen of which will run for 5 years and four of which will run for 4 years.

Grouped by disease area the projects are:

The 22nd project is called TraIT (Translational research IT) and aims to develop a sustainable and scalable IT infrastructure in the Netherlands based on proven technology. TraIT will allow researchers in distributed research centers to combine and jointly analyze their data to develop more personalized healthcare in disease areas such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Every project is subject to a Midterm Review by the International Scientific Advisory Board, which critically analyzes the extent to which the project has progressed and helps CTMM to identify practical measures to increase commitment, resourcing and efforts during the second half of the project.

How CTMM Obtains Funding
In 2007 and 2008, the Dutch government committed Euro 150 million to the newly formed CTMM from the government’s FES fund (Fonds Economische Structuurversterking), which it created using revenues from its Slochteren natural gas field in the North of the Netherlands. The public-private partnership agreement under which CTMM operates requires that this Euro 150 million from the Dutch government is matched by funding from CTMM’s industrial and academic partners, giving the CTMM a total budget of Euro 300 million to spend on translational research. Some projects were awarded additional funding from Dutch charitable organizations, including the Dutch Heart Foundation, Diabetes Research Foundation, Kidney Foundation, Arthritis Foundation and Cancer Society.

How CTMM Allocates Funding
Project proposals, which are evaluated by CTMM’s independent International Scientific Advisory Committee and approved by CTMM’s Supervisory Board, bring together consortia of industrial and academic partners. The consortium partners collectively agree to match the government funding allocated to the project, in an even split between the industrial and academic groups. Hence for each CTMM project, 50% of the project funding comes from the Dutch government, 25% from the project’s industrial partners and 25% from its academic partners. Depending on their resources, partners can either contribute funding in cash or in-kind (i.e. in the form of goods or services). The funding for each project is spread over the duration of the project and is administered by CTMM.