Consortium sandbox: building and sharing resources.

Abstract

Some common challenges of biomedical product translation-scientific, regulatory, adoption, and reimbursement-can best be addressed by the broad sharing of resources or tools. But, such aids remain undeveloped because the undertaking requires expertise from multiple research sectors as well as validation across organizations. Biomedical resource development can benefit from directed consortia-a partnership framework that provides neutral and temporary collaborative environments for several, oftentimes competing, organizations and leverages the aggregated intellect and resources of stakeholders so as to create versatile solutions. By analyzing 369 biomedical research consortia, we tracked consortia growth around the world and gained insight into how this partnership model advances biomedical research. Our analyses suggest that research-by-consortium provides benefit to biomedical science, but the model needs further optimization before it can be fully integrated into the biomedical research pipeline.