{"entity":{"id":"idea-fund-replication-set-aside","kind":"idea","name":"Set aside 3% of grant budgets to replicate findings before translation","aka":[],"tldr":"Before spending millions to turn a lab finding into a drug, spend a little to have an independent lab check it is real. Funders would reserve a small slice of money for exactly this.","summary":"Funders reserve 3% of research budgets for independent, pre-registered replications of high-impact preclinical findings that are about to receive translational investment (IND-enabling work, company formation, phase 1). Replication is done by contract labs or a network of academic 'replication cores' with blinded protocols agreed with the original authors. The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology found that many landmark effects were smaller or absent when repeated; catching this before translation saves far more than it costs.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology","url":"https://www.cos.io/rpcb"}],"tags":[],"related":["idea-fund-organoid-translation-gate","idea-fund-ind-enabling-fund"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["pdx-models","organoids","crispr-screens"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-funding-allocation","b-reproducibility","b-translational-valley"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Systematic replication before translational investment finds at least 30% of candidate findings non-reproducible or materially weaker, and translational programmes that pass replication reach phase 1 with fewer late-stage preclinical failures than unreplicated ones.","rationale":"The Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology reproduced effects at roughly half the original magnitude on average; Bayer and Amgen internal replication efforts reported majority failure. Independent verification is standard before major capital deployment in every other industry.","test":"Pilot with one translational fund: replicate the key experiment for every asset before IND-enabling money is released, and compare downstream attrition with the fund's historical record.","maturity":"speculative","actor":"research","cost":"medium","horizonYears":3},"route":"/ideas/idea-fund-replication-set-aside/","neighbours":{"idea":[{"id":"idea-fund-ind-enabling-fund","kind":"idea","name":"A fast IND-enabling fund that pays for toxicology and manufacturing in eight weeks","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-ind-enabling-fund/"},{"id":"idea-fund-organoid-translation-gate","kind":"idea","name":"A funded organoid and PDX panel as the go/no-go gate before IND-enabling money","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-organoid-translation-gate/"},{"id":"idea-fund-target-validation-consortium","kind":"idea","name":"A pre-competitive consortium to validate or kill academic targets before licensing","route":"/ideas/idea-fund-target-validation-consortium/"}],"technology":[{"id":"crispr-screens","kind":"technology","name":"CRISPR functional genomics","route":"/technologies/crispr-screens/"},{"id":"organoids","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived organoids","route":"/technologies/organoids/"},{"id":"pdx-models","kind":"technology","name":"Patient-derived xenografts","route":"/technologies/pdx-models/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-funding-allocation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Funding follows fashion, not burden","route":"/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/"},{"id":"b-reproducibility","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Preclinical results do not reproduce","route":"/bottlenecks/b-reproducibility/"},{"id":"b-translational-valley","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The valley of death between lab and product","route":"/bottlenecks/b-translational-valley/"}]}}