A Message from the Chief Scientific Officer: Helping Our Partners Win Grants: Data, Expertise, and Support from Proposal to Publication

Dear Colleagues,

One of the great privileges of being part of the TriNetX community is seeing the breadth of scientific ambition across our healthcare organization partners. Every day, researchers across our network are asking important clinical questions, developing innovative ideas, and building programs of research that have the potential to improve care and generate meaningful new evidence. Many of those ideas begin with a grant application, and I want to take this opportunity to emphasize something important: TriNetX is here not only as a data partner, but as a research partner, and we want to help you win grants.

The opportunity in front of our network is significant. Healthcare organizations are increasingly being asked to demonstrate both scientific vision and operational readiness in order to secure research funding. Reviewers want to know that a proposed study addresses an important question, but they also want confidence that the work is feasible, that the data strategy is sound, that the team understands the methods, and that the project can move efficiently from award to execution. This is where TriNetX can provide meaningful support.

More Than Data

When people think about TriNetX in the context of grants, they often think first about access to real-world data. That is certainly an important part of the value we provide. Through a global network of more than 300 million patients, TriNetX can help investigators explore disease burden, identify relevant patient populations, assess study feasibility, support research in rare conditions and diverse populations, and develop more competitive, evidence-driven proposals.

When we say we want to help you win grants, we mean more than helping you identify a cohort or cite the scale of the network in a proposal. We mean helping your teams develop applications that are stronger and more credible because they are grounded in both robust data and thoughtful scientific support. TriNetX can contribute through early feasibility assessments, preliminary cohort exploration, study concept refinement, guidance on describing the role of TriNetX, discussion of variable availability and data considerations, methodological input, and practical advice on what can be done within the platform and what may require downstream analysis. We can also help investigators present these elements clearly so reviewers understand both the ambition of the work and the realism of the plan.

Supporting the Full Research Journey

Our commitment to grant success does not stop at the application stage. TriNetX can also help your teams prepare for what comes next through consultation on study aims, budget planning related to the use of TriNetX data, onboarding, training, consultative study review, programming and operational guidance for study execution, publication support, dissemination planning, and continued scientific collaboration. We can also help teams think ahead about transparent reporting and the steps that position research for high-quality scientific output.

Winning a grant is an important milestone, but it is not the end goal. The goal is to move from a strong idea to a funded proposal, a well-executed study, and ultimately high-quality evidence and publications that inform care and improve outcomes. We want to support that full path.

A Partnership Built on Clarity

As with any strong partnership, it is important to be clear about expectations. TriNetX can provide feasibility guidance, scientific and methodological consultation, onboarding and training, publication support, and consultative input across the life of the project. At the same time, responsibility for the scientific direction of the proposal, institutional approvals, final application development, analytic execution, and conduct of the research remains with the investigator and the healthcare organization.

It is also important to be clear that for grants that are successfully funded and include use of TriNetX data as part of the awarded research, applicable data fees will apply. This funding helps maintain and improve the network and supports the scientific team at TriNetX. We encourage teams to plan for those costs in the grant budget from the outset so that funded projects can move forward smoothly and without unnecessary delays.

Looking Ahead

There is tremendous opportunity for our healthcare organization partners to expand the impact of their research through successful grant funding, and I believe TriNetX can play an important role in helping make that happen. The strength of this network has always come from the combination of scientific curiosity, collaborative spirit, and shared commitment to producing research that matters. By bringing together the scale of our real-world data network with practical scientific, methodological, publication, and operational support, we can help our partners build stronger proposals, launch stronger studies, and generate stronger evidence.

I am grateful for your partnership and for the work you do every day to advance research in a thoughtful, rigorous, and patient-centered way. I look forward to continuing to support your teams, learning from your successes, and helping more of our healthcare organization partners turn promising ideas into funded studies, impactful publications, and stronger research programs.

With appreciation,

Jeffrey S. Brown, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer

With more than 25 years of experience in research and consulting, Jeff is an internationally recognized expert in the use of RWD to support the evidentiary needs of regulatory agencies and medical product sponsors and an expert in the assessment of data quality of RWD resources.