The Stanford Center for Clinical Research and AstraZeneca have entered into a multiyear collaboration that will address major health-care challenges and provide funding to School of Medicine investigators. The project will combine AstraZeneca’s expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry with the School of Medicine’s research capabilities.

This collaboration will initially focus on cardio-metabolic diseases, respiratory diseases and oncology, and will explore partnerships in areas such a mobile health, clinical trial management services, and education and training opportunities.

Kenneth Mahaffey, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine and vice chair of clinical research for the Department of Medicine, will lead Stanford’s participation. SCCR staff and leadership will provide operational support and coordination for the project.

Amol Rajmane, MD, MBA, associate director of SCCR, said AstraZeneca has funded the research of individual investigators at Stanford in the past, leading to discussions about a formal collaboration. “This project is the culmination of those talks,” he said.

Each year, a committee comprising Stanford and AstraZeneca leadership will solicit and review research proposals from the Stanford medical community and select two or three projects that would receive between $50,000 and $250,000 each. The company has allocated $2 million to initiate the collaboration and to support the research of Stanford investigators over the next three years.

Under the agreement, inventions by Stanford researchers will be the intellectual property of the university, while discoveries by AstraZeneca researchers will be the intellectual property of the company. Joint discoveries will be jointly owned.

The initial project proposal has been signed. For the next several weeks, the project leaders at the school will be establishing the solicitation and funding procedures. “We’ll be figuring out the RFP process and creating a timeline for funding,” said Rajmane.