Forum on Regenerative Medicine

Forum on Regenerative Medicine April 2024 Summary The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (The National Academies) offers a variety of activities that address science policy issues and furnish credible, independent advice in a neutral setting. One such activity is the Forum, also called a Roundtable, which is a convening activity that provides both a mechanism and a venue for interested parties from government, academia, industry, and other groups to meet and discuss issues of mutual interest and concern in a neutral setting. The primary purpose of Forums is to foster dialogue across sectors and among interested parties and institutions, and to illuminate issues, but not necessarily to resolve them. A Forum will explore a particular process, identify challenges that exist throughout, and discuss and promote approaches to address those challenges. Specific Forum activities include structured discussions (sometimes in closed session since Forums are not subject to FACA), workshops, and symposia. The goal of these activities is to develop a mutual understanding of the relevant issues and to provide a mechanism that fosters collaboration among parties in addressing these issues. The Forum on Regenerative Medicine provides a convening mechanism for leaders from academia, industry, government, patient and provider organizations, regulators, foundations, associations, and others to come together to discuss and address issues of mutual interest and concern. The purpose of the Forum is to explore and identify strategies for progressing the field of regenerative medicine and advancing the discovery, development, and translation of regenerative medicine findings into effective therapies. The Forum explores existing and potential barriers to scientific and therapeutic advances; discusses opportunities to assist in facilitating more effective partnerships among key parties; examines the impact that current policies have on the discovery, development, and translation of regenerative medicine therapies; considers the unique challenges of identifying, validating, and bringing regenerative medicine applications to market; and explores the ethical, legal, and social issues posed by regenerative medicine advances. During the course of Forum discussions the need for more in-depth and detailed discussions on specific topics is likely to emerge. In order to appropriately address these topics, the Forum may conduct activities each year, such as workshops, agreed to by the Forum membership. In selecting topics, the Forum considers the timeliness of the issues, the amount of information already available on the topic, and whether or not the Forum members would benefit from further exploration of the issues with outside experts.