The California stem cell agency today released the
$150,000 contract and proposal from James Gollub Associates to create a “strategic
road map” for the $3 billion state program, which is scheduled to run out of cash
for new grants sometime in 2017.
The goal of the road map, according to the contract,
is to develop a “preferred model for a public-private sponsored entity to fund the
most desirable translational projects in the CIRM portfolio.” That would appear
to rule out future funding for basic research and training, which the agency
has supported well during its nine-year history. It would also be an acknowledgement that the
agency cannot count on $300 million a year for grants as it has in the past.
Under the terms of Prop. 71, which created the
agency in 2004, the effort is currently financed by state bonds, money borrowed
by the state of California that flows directly to the agency without oversight
by the governor or legislature. Authority to issue the bonds expires in 2017.
The contract calls for an initial report from the Gollub
by Nov. 30 with the agency to decide by March 1, 2014, on whether it wants an
operations and business plan from the Tiburon, Ca., firm. Presumably the agency’s governing board would
hear recommendations from Gollub at its December meeting.
The contract, signed July 16, specifies that Gollub
will conduct at least 20 interviews with stakeholders to evaluate four possible
models that it will develop. The stakeholders will include “investment,
academic and government groups” and possibly others to be determined later.
The proposal presented by Gollub contains more
information on the firm and the persons who will be working
on the project. In addition to Gollub, they include Steve Marshall, Amy Rassen
and Annika Barnes, all Gollub employees. The contract and proposal can be found
below.
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