Initiative Snapshot

New biomedical research constantly drives scientific discoveries that advance our understanding of human health and provide new ways to treat disease. Independent replication can benefit researchers by providing additional data that could be used to support eventual IND applications and/or commercialization, bolster novel findings that may serve as the basis for future research projects, and validate novel tools, technologies, and methods that may be used in a wide variety of biomedical research applications.  

Through the Replication to Enhance Research Impact Initiative (Replication Initiative), the NIH Common Fund is launching an effort to provide support to independently replicate significant lines of research and validate novel technologies. The Replication Initiative will support replication efforts for preclinical, translational, and technology development research studies from Common Fund programs and NIH-supported research across different scientific research areas.

The Replication Initiative supports partnerships between independent contract research organizations (CROs) and researchers to replicate important lines of research and validate novel technologies. The Common Fund will provide support to researchers through NOT-RM-24-009 and NOT-RM-24-013 to engage with CROs and perform preparatory activities, which may include exchanging unique experimental reagents or protocols. Separately, the Common Fund will provide funds to the CROs who will then perform the replication activities. These activities are detailed in the figure below: 
 
This effort will explore if directly replicating certain preclinical, translational, and technology development studies, or validating key technologies, are fruitful approaches to improve research reproducibility. It will determine which types of studies and under what conditions this is beneficial, in support of the wider NIH efforts to enhance research rigor and reproducibility. The Replication Initiative will leverage results from the replication studies, analysis of the processes used to design and implement the replications, and input from researchers and CROs to define best practices and lessons learned.