Background

Q-FASTR, the Quadrangle Fund for Advancing and Seeding Translational Research at Harvard Medical School, identifies, supports, and expedites early-stage research with eventual commercialization potential. A significant obstacle to the development of early-stage discoveries is the lack of funding for risky and novel research and for the basic or translational studies needed to demonstrate the innovation’s potential or proof-of-concept (POC). Q-FASTR provides funding and other support to help HMS Quad faculty identify promising nascent technologies within their labs and develop these technologies to a stage where they are attractive to other funding sources such as public or private agencies, other institutional sources, or potentially industry.

The relative positioning of Q-FASTR projects in the basic to translational research funding pipeline. Q-FASTR is intended to bridge the funding gap identified on the chart.

Established in 2014 thanks to gifts from Phill Gross, Q-FASTR aims to accelerate early-stage research that has the potential to lead to commercialization and, ultimately, improve people’s health. The initial gift was matched by gifts from the Warren Alpert Foundation and Barbara and Louis Perlmutter.

The sweet spots for this seed funding are research projects that fall in the post-discovery, pre-proof-of-concept, pre-commercial development gap that have the potential to become attractive opportunities for collaboration with industry or the venture community, or that are deemed strong candidates for licensing.