The Health Research Alliance Partners with ÜberResearch to Launch New Database

The Health Research Alliance (HRA) is a membership organization composed of nonprofit funders of biomedical research and training. Organizations participating in HRA represent a variety of types of nonprofit funders of biomedical research, including voluntary health agencies, private foundations, and operating foundations. HRA members share a common interest in speeding the translation of biomedical science into applications that improve health and in identifying and adopting effective practices in funding health research.

NEW DATABASE CAPTURES THE ROLE OF NONPROFITS IN FUNDING BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

Today, the HRA has launched the HRA Reporter, a real time, searchable database of awards made by its 75 members. Currently, the HRA Reporter represents $8.9 billion in funding and over 31,000 separate grants from 2006 to the present.

HRA partnered with our portfolio company ÜberResearch to create the database – it is a customized version of ÜberResearch’s flagship offering, Dimensions, a global award database covering hundreds of funders and with over $1 trillion in historical and future funded research.

What is the HRA Reporter and its goals? 

The HRA Reporter follows the model of the National Institutes of Health’s NIH RePORTER, which provides comprehensive information on research projects funded by the NIH and other federal agencies. No comparable database previously existed to capture investment in biomedical research by the nonprofit community, which was estimated to represent almost $5 billion in 2015, according to Research!America.

The goal of the HRA Reporter is to represent the full scope of awards by nonprofit organizations to provide a clearer picture of the biomedical research funding landscape.  It will enable data-driven and strategic grantmaking by nonprofits, governments and the biopharmaceutical industry, and foster collaboration between organizations with aligned programs and missions.

Maryrose Franko, PhD, HRA Executive Director says of the news:

“Nonprofit funders of biomedical research play a critical role in developing innovative approaches to funding research and seeding new ideas and approaches. To maximize the impact of all research funding, this important sector must be taken into account. The HRA Reporter will enable HRA members and the broader research community, to be more efficient and effective.”

Presently, the HRA Reporter is accessible to HRA members.

“In the future, we hope to make this information more broadly available to maximize opportunities for partnerships and collaborations,”

adds Betsy Myers, PhD, HRA Board Chair and Program Director for Medical Research at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.