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.