The challenges of reaching across organizational and geographical lines to collaborate on research are numerous. Investigators who work with or within the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) know this better than most. While so-called 'extramural' NIH grantees at various universities may be eager to team up with their 'intramural' counterparts within the government agency, they have a tough time keeping tabs on people and projects within the NIH. It is for this reason that scientists are hopeful that a recently launched program may make such partnerships run smoother.

In July, the government agency formally announced a grant program, the first of its kind, to compel scientists who work in academia on translational science projects to partner with its scientists at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Both current and prospective extramural researchers may begin applying in October 2012 and must list an intramural NIH scientist as lead or co-investigator of the study. The projects must also make use of the Clinical Center, the largest US hospital dedicated only to clinical studies, a place that has only rarely been used by extramural researchers.

To foster this collaborative work, the agency unveiled a new website on 13 July that allows external investigators to search the types of assays and biomedical tools available at the center; it also lists the contact information of the scientists who work there. “Collaborations did occur in the past but were restricted to people who knew each other,” says John Gallin, director of the NIH Clinical Center.

“This is a special type of grant that would allow extramural and intramural investigators who have special patient populations, special reagents and special technologies to be brought together,” says Phillip Gorden, a senior investigator at the NIH's National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Extramural investigators who receive a grant could, for example, have priority access to NIDDK's metabolic chambers—small rooms that measure how much energy a patient burns while eating, sleeping and performing everyday activities. Before this new grant program, extramural investigators specializing in obesity research may have had to wait for months or longer before receiving clearance to use equipment at the Clinical Center.

The new grant program may make collaboration easier, but it is limited to projects that include the 444 principal investigators at the Clinical Center, who make up 37% of all intramural researchers at the NIH. Gallin says a future challenge will be to figure out how to maintain these intra- and extramural relationships and expand collaborations throughout all of the NIH.