2011) Increased support for investigators working both in experimental medicine and in the laboratory has also been promoted ASK inhibitor in the German health research policy. The Roadmap for Health Research and the Health Research Framework

Programme, issued by the BMBF, both textually used the terms of “translational research”, referred to the research areas the notions covered as important priorities and discussed problematic institutional situations for clinician-scientists as important obstacles to achieving a high performance in the area (BMBF 2007; BMBF 2010). Training programmes associated with TR efforts in Germany also go beyond clinician-scientists, however. For example, the future TRAIN Centre for Pharmaceutical Process Engineering will include its own training programme for “pharmaceutical engineers” as a career path distinct

from pharmacology and revolving around the study and improvement of the drug innovation process itself. Coordination and policy Austria Effective coordination of relevant actors had been achieved to varying degrees within different parts of the OncoTyrol and ASC consortia. While the OncoTyrol consortium has a GSK2399872A substantial financial commitment from a large number of industrial partners, the latter do not seem to be actively involved in development projects together with the academic partners. Rather, the industry CHIR-99021 molecular weight provides funds and some services and reagents, with the expectation that they stand a better chance to benefit from eventual ‘breakthroughs’. The Section on Austrian experimental

platforms for TR already reported that shared work between laboratory- and clinic-based actors at OncoTyrol did not always put the latter group of actors into the position of full contributors. Coordination at that level thus appears problematic. At another level, however, coordination was achieved through the consortium’s strong central leadership, which ensured that only projects with high levels of short-term clinical relevance would obtain funding. At the ASC, in contrast, collaborations were deemed desirable but did not appear to be pursued to the same extent as in other cases reported on here. There appeared to be no leader with an overview of TR projects, and who might be in a position to attempt that most promising leads for new health interventions would be taken through pre-clinical and clinical development. Recent Austrian biomedical policy has been primarily concerned with encouraging the formation of small- and medium-sized enterprises in the field of biotechnology.