An ad hoc planning committee will plan a two-day public workshop that will explore ways to maximize the usefulness and impact of the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) in order to advance translational sciences, a key goal of NCATS. Specifically, the workshop will include consideration of the effective use of CAN authorities for the development of new tools and methods to enhance the development and testing of therapies and diagnostics to patients. Subject matter experts will be invited to participate in the workshop to discuss and help explore models, approaches, and strategies to accelerate translational science. The workshop will feature invited presentations and discussions that will:

• Identify and catalog potential tools, methods, and approaches that hold promise for accelerating translational science. Consideration of such promising approaches will draw from the experiences of existing activities at other federal agencies related to the goals of CAN (e.g., FDA, CDC, AHRQ).
• Discuss the authorities conferred to CAN and identify strategies for effectively using those authorities. Consideration of the CAN authorities will specifically explore the flexible research, or “other transactions”, authority and will reference existing efforts in which such authority is currently applied across other federal agencies (e.g., DARPA, DTRA, BARDA).
• Explore promising models for public-private collaborations that could be strengthened or facilitated by activities under CAN. Discuss barriers to such collaborations and identify opportunities and potential solutions for moving past the identified barriers. Discuss the respective roles of multiple sectors, including, e.g., biopharma, biotech, venture capital/private equity, and patient/disease advocacy.
• Identify barriers and potential solutions to facilitate coordination of activities under CAN with the FDA regulatory review process and timelines.

The planning committee will develop the agenda for the workshop, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate or identify moderators for the discussions. A single individually authored summary of the workshop will be prepared by a designated rapporteur based on the information gathered and the discussions held during the workshop.