NCRR's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) support thematic multidisciplinary centers that augment and strengthen institutional biomedical research capacity. This is accomplished by expanding and developing biomedical faculty research capability and enhancing research infrastructure, including the establishment of core facilities needed to carry out the objectives of a multidisciplinary, collaborative program.
These centers are led by NIH-funded investigators with expertise central to the theme of the grant proposal. The centers promote collaborative interactive efforts among researchers with complementary backgrounds, skills, and expertise. In some instances, COBRE support will facilitate the development of new disease-specific research centers or augment the capability of existing centers. Researchers supported through the COBREs are expected to compete independently for external peer-reviewed grant support.
Each COBRE includes:
- a principal investigator who is an established biomedical or behavioral research scientist with expertise central to the research theme of the center, has an active research laboratory, has relevant peer-reviewed funding, and has demonstrated administrative leadership and mentoring experience;
- three to five individual research projects—each supervised by a single junior investigator—that stand alone but share a common thematic scientific focus; and
- at least one mentor for each junior investigator, and a development and mentoring plan addressing how the junior investigators will transition to competitive grant support from NIH Institutes and Centers or other Federal or non-Federal agencies or organizations.