FROM THE EDITOR

Equine Consortium PanelMorris Animal Foundation has been involved in

supporting equine research for many years. Recently,they devised a plan to encourage experts from aroundthe world to work collectively together to more effec-tively address serious animal health issues. Their desireis to fund consortium grants and “large scale multi-yeargrants” outside of the traditional grants that are giveneach year. As part of the planning process, MorrisAnimal Foundation convened an expert panel inDecember of 2005 to address five key issues:• How will equine health/welfare priorities for new

consortium grants be determined?• What type of partners will be needed?• How will ownership be defined?• What types of grant review and monitoring pro-

cesses will be necessary and how will grants beawarded and contracted?

• How will revenue be raised?Dr. Douglas Antczak from the Baker Institute at

Cornell University facilitated the panel, which includedexperts in the areas of science, intellectual property, indus-try, associations, foundation, government, and business.The word “consortium” was defined as a group of expertswho work within or across disciplines spanning various in-stitutions, industries, and possibly other countries.

There was considerable discussion as to howhealth/welfare issues should be prioritized. This couldbe done based on incidence or prevalence of the dis-ease, diseases that affect the largest numbers of horses,diseases that cause the greatest suffering, or diseasesthat have the greatest economic impact to owners. Thepanel suggested that a variety of factors be weighed.The group settled on respiratory illness, lameness, andinflammation as areas of high interest that could be ad-dressed through a consortium effort.

They suggested that, for a consortium to work, manydiverse partners would need to be involved, includinghorse owners, non-profit foundations/organizations, gov-ernmental agencies, university and industry researchers,biotechnology experts, business people, venture capital-ists, veterinarians and veterinary associations, pharma-ceutical companies, and intellectual property experts.

One area that is potentially problematic is owner-ship of the information generated, including royalties,patents, publication rights, samples, and so forth.

Some of the panelists felt that a separate review pro-cess might be necessary for these large consortium grants.Obviously, the big problem with these multi-year consor-tium grants would be raising the funds. This was certainlya major part of the discussion by the panel. One groupsuggested that a new equine health/welfare consortium bedeveloped, consisting of foundations that currentlyfund/coordinate equine research (eg, Morris AnimalFoundation, Grayson Jockey Club, Research Foundationof the American Quarter Horse Association, AmericanAssociation of Equine Practitioners, and others).

Scientists on the panel suggested that a minimum of$500,000 per year for 5 years would be needed to initi-ate the first equine consortium grants. Several sugges-tions were presented as to how these funds could beraised. Obviously, from a scientist’s viewpoint, multi-year, multi-university grants would be ideal for thosethat actually obtain the funding. However, for universi-ties and scientists that may not be as competitive, thispossibly could minimize the amount of money availableto other universities and to young scientists that maynot have a track record.

I certainly applaud the Morris Animal Foundationfor recognizing that funding for equine research is inad-equate. I look forward to seeing this equine researchprogram developed in the near future.

Ed Squires, Editor

186 Journal of Equine Veterinary Science May 2006

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