Research and development is necessary to achieve progress. ZonMw (The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development) funds health research and stimulates the use of acquired knowledge to improve health and healthcare in the Netherlands. ZonMw’s main commissioning organisations are the Ministry of Health, Welfare & Sport, and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

Rational use of pharmacotherapy is essential to optimise the full potential of medication. Many important research questions need to be addressed prior to, but also following the introduction of novel therapeutics. Many post-registration research questions are, understandably, addressed by the pharmaceutical industry, but it is also clear that others are left unanswered due to lack of funding possibilities.

In 2009 and 2010 ZonMw advised the Dutch Ministry of Health to provide funding for addressing these gaps in society’s knowledge of how to optimally use pharmacotherapy. These pleas included the recommendation that before research activities on a large scale can be funded, an adequate research infrastructure needs to be created. Research standards for both interventional and observational studies will require a robust infrastructure. Finally, implementation of acquired knowledge will have to become the standard in daily practice.

In order to achieve these ambitious goals, ZonMw has developed an outline for a funding programme which is presented to you here. Please note that this outline needs to be developed into a full funding programme proposal, together with relevant stakeholders. Public-private partnership in both content and contribution is envisioned for this funding programme. This will hopefully yield a structural and fruitful collaboration between academia, private partners such as pharmaceutical companies and health care insurers, patients and government to optimise pharmacotherapy in daily practice.

The outline is available in English as PDF-file, see downloads.