California’s new and ambitious effort to speed stem cell
therapies into widespread use drew “multiple” applications as it closed out its
first round on Friday.
January is the first month of what the agency calls a
radical move in its grant-making. Its initial foray is a $50 million clinical
stage round that will be accepting applications for funding at the end of each
month until the middle of the year.
The promise for those filing Friday is to put money in their
hands in roughly four to five months. That compares to an average of 22 months under
the agency’s previous grant rounds.
Randy Mills, the president of the agency, devised the fast-track effort and dubbed it
CIRM 2.0. He told agency directors on Thursday that “multiple applications” had been
received. (See here and here for more on CIRM 2.0.)
The California Stem Cell Report on Thursday and Friday asked for the specific number that Mills referred to. The agency, formally known as the California
Institute for Regenerative Medicine(CIRM), however, did not provide a figure.
The requests from the California Stem Cell Report also sought
the following, all of which is public information: the total number of
applications, the number from academic institutions, number from nonprofits,
number from businesses, figures on the amount being sought on each application and
the general nature of the research proposed.
Applications were due by 5 p.m. PST Friday. Presumably the
agency will have the complete information assembled by early Monday and will
provide it then.
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