Welcome to TRAIN Central Station 2.0

by Kristin Schneeman, program director, FasterCures

Welcome to TRAIN Central Station 2.0, a new and improved version of FasterCures’ online platform for venture philanthropy in medical research. We’re excited to be bringing you lots of frequent updates and fresh content in the coming months, including:

• Monthly Webinars, beginning on March 16, 4:00-5:00 pm ET with a special appearance by NIH Director Francis Collins, engaging in a Q&A on the proposed new National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. April’s Webinar will feature legal experts Ken Schaner and David Lubitz on “Unlocking IP at Academic Institutions.”
• New interviews with trailblazers in our Innovator Spotlight. Read the latest with Alpha-1 Foundation’s John Walsh.
• The good old E-News, back on a monthly schedule and chock-full of interesting stuff. This month, we highlight Institutional Investor magazine’s piece on venture philanthropy; an open letter to the pharma industry asking them to contribute discontinued compounds to a central repository; and the launch of HealthResearchFunding.org, which aims to connect funders with peer-reviewed, meritorious research proposals.
• Links to case studies and best practices. Check out the smorgasbord of fascinating presentations on cross-sector collaborations at December’s Partnering for Cures conference.
• Occasional guest blogs from people we find fascinating.

We want this to be not just a megaphone for FasterCures, but a community-building tool, and for that to happen, we need you.

• Use the discussion board as a place to solicit others’ ideas on how to handle problems you’re facing, or share information about issues of concern to you. While you’re there, offer up your questions for our Webinar with Francis Collins on March 16!
• Share with us any tools or resources you’ve developed at your organization (e.g. legal documents, project management tools, etc.) that you think might to useful to others in doing their work and we’ll post them in our Tools and Resources section.
• Send us your calendar items and job postings that might be relevant to the TRAIN community and we’ll share them on the site.

As always, we look forward to your feedback on how we can continue to improve the site, as well as your contributions of material for it. Enjoy the ride!