On June 7, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) published plans to shift its emphasis from basic research to translation, working in partnership with industry. Three-fifths of about $840 million budgeted by the San Francisco–based stem cell agency for the next five years will go towards moving stem cell projects into early clinical trials. The new 'strategic plan' will see CIRM supporting a minimum of ten promising therapies spanning collectively no fewer than five separate diseases. Alan Trounson, CIRM's president, explained that investment in basic research had been essential during the first five years given the dire state of stem cell research in the wake of the Bush administration's lack of support. But now it is time to focus on the “raft” of projects close to becoming treatments, Trounson told Nature Biotechnology. CIRM now hopes to attract biotech and pharma partners committed to bringing therapies to the market. Diseases likely to benefit from the boost include eye diseases, type I diabetes, HIV, and genetic and blood disorders. But CIRM grant reviewer panel members lack translational experience and “while academics are appreciated, they are not the people who bring products to market,” says Basil M. Hantash, CEO and chairman of Escape Therapeutics, a CIRM-funded stem cell biotech in San Jose, California. Hantash believes a complete overhaul of the grant review process is needed so decisions are primarily made by industry-experienced panel members with academics serving in an advisory capacity as needed, “to show industry that this is a serious process of producing cures for difficult-to-treat diseases.”