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Overview

The Regenerative Medicine Innovation Project (RMIP) was established by the 21st Century Cures Act to accelerate progress in the field by supporting clinical research on adult stem cells, while promoting scientific rigor and protecting patient safety. This initiative is a trans-NIH effort, in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
About RMIP
The RMIP is one of four Innovation Projects authorized under the Cures Act; the others are the Precision Medicine Initiative (“All of Us”), the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, and the BRAIN Initiative.
The NIH RMIP launched following passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, which authorized $30 million over four years “for clinical research to further the field of regenerative medicine using adult stem cells.”
NIH continues to work in close collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to implement the RMIP.
RMIP Activities

Current Funding Opportunities
Title: RMIP Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trials (UG3/UH3 – Clinical Trial Required)
ID Number: RFA-HL-21-003
Activity Code: UG3/UH3 Exploratory/Developmental Phased Award Cooperative Agreement
Earliest Submission Date: September 2, 2020
Application Due Date: October 2, 2020
Regenerative Medicine Innovation Catalyst (RMIC)
A new resource funded by NIH is now available to more efficiently bring safe and effective adult stem cell-based therapies into clinical trials and to help further the field of regenerative medicine.
The newly established NIH-funded Regenerative Medicine Innovation Catalyst (RMIC) is available to conduct in-depth characterization of the source stem cell and stem cell-derived products to be administered to research subjects, provide technical and administrative services to help address regulatory requirements, as well as provide storage and dissemination services for in-depth cell characterization results and clinical data (More info on http://rmidatahub.org).
Researchers funded through the RMIP are expected to provide representative samples of the source stem cells and clinical-grade stem cell product for in-depth characterization through the RMIC. The RMIC is expected to also provide a platform for sharing and analyzing of clinical trial data and cell product characterization data, thereby potentially enabling correlation of stem cell attributes with clinical outcomes.
The RMIC consists of a clinical research and data hub at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and an in-depth cell characterization hub at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Funded Projects: Advancing the Field of Regenerative Medicine
Almost immediately after the passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, the NIH began working to implement the RMIP.
- During the first year of funding, NIH worked closely with FDA to create awareness of the RMIP, to solicit research proposals, and to make eight competitive supplement awards that leveraged existing research grants. These clinical research awards cover a broad spectrum of science and new technologies, and have the potential to advance understanding and treatment of common diseases – including diabetes, anemia, corneal and other eye diseases, and chronic skin ulcers – as well as rare diseases, including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, inherited skin diseases, and sickle cell disease.
- To help inform future RMIP activities, NIH and FDA hosted a workshop in December 2017 to explore the state of regenerative medicine science involving adult stem cells, with a focus on promising approaches for the development of safe and effective products, scientific areas poised for major transformative advances, and critical gaps that must be addressed to enable significant innovation and rapid advancement of the field.
- New funding opportunities were announced in the second year of the RMIP, with awards made in FY 2019 to support both late-stage pre-clinical studies and early-phase clinical trials.
- Additionally that year, the NIH and FDA worked together to begin planning and establishing the RMIC after hearing from grantees about the need to better define different stem cell products. Developing core resources and an infrastructure to support grantees is critical to regenerative medicine innovation.