The Sanford Project

The Sanford Project

The Sanford Project is a key program effort with the goal of enabling Sanford Health to contribute to advancing biomedical research as the full footprint of its research infrastructure is being developed. This effort, combined with the activities of Sanford Research/USD, will lead to an annual research budget of over $100 million per year and a staff of between 300 and 350 investigators, associate scientists and administrative staff.

The concept for the Sanford Project is to focus on a single pressing healthcare issue and establish a world-class research team targeted to making significant progress in addressing it within a reasonable time period.  Sanford Health is planning an investment of $30 million each year to advance the Sanford Project; additional funding is expected from federal, foundation and industry sources.

Using a deliberative, objective-based identification and selection process, associates of Sanford Health and their representatives examined a wide range of pressing healthcare diseases and conditions to identify those in which innovative new treatment approaches were poised for development and could be carried out through a targeted research program housed at Sanford Health.

The Sanford Project is intended to be a new way of advancing biomedical research. Instead of creating barriers between the worlds of research and clinical treatment, the Sanford Project creates a bridge by focusing on opportunity-driven and results-oriented innovation to address pressing, real-world healthcare needs.