The National Cooperative Drug Discovery Groups (NCDDGs) are funded as cooperative agreements in response to a Request for Applications (RFA). The national NCDDG Program, which was established in 1983, supports broad, innovative, multi-disciplinary approaches to the discovery of new, synthetic or natural-source derived anticancer drugs. Although this program does not support clinical trials, a timely evaluation of products discovered by the Groups is encouraged. A cooperative agreement is a funding mechanism used when the work is investigator initiated but significant involvement of the government is anticipated in performance of activities. A pilot version of this program began in 2004, funded by the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center. A $6 million, five-year grant to support its operations was funded by the National Cancer Institute in July 2005. This program is designed to take cancer chemotherapy drug leads through lead optimization, scale up, in vitro and in vivo testing and preclinical development for potential IND filings. The UW-Madison NCDDG combines three major laboratories:
and three service cores: