The mission of the Reproductive Sciences Branch (RSB) in the Center for Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is to encourage, enable and support scientific research aimed at expanding our knowledge of the processes underlying the success or failure of human reproduction with the ultimate goal of improving human reproductive health and quality of life.  To help achieve its mission, the RSB supports a National network of centers through a program called the Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research (SCCPIR).

Created in 1998, the SCCPIR is a research-based centers program designed to promote multidisciplinary interactions between basic and clinical scientists so that breakthroughs in our fundamental understanding of key reproductive processes are translated into clinical practice, and that questions arising in the clinic may be expeditiously addressed in the laboratory.  To ensure efficient transfer of knowledge between the clinic and laboratory, the SCCPIR is administered through a series of cooperative agreements with each awardee institution.  Cooperative agreements are assistance mechanisms that allow the awardee institution to enter into a partnership with the government, thereby maximizing the ability of the RSB to promote, facilitate and assist the research conducted by the awardee institution.

Overall research coordination of the SCCPIR is performed by a Steering Committee consisting of the Principal Investigators from each of the participating centers.  Dr. Stuart B. Moss is the RSB Project Scientist of the SCCPIR, and is a member of the Steering Committee.  As a means of maximizing inter-center collaborations and translational efficiency, Research Focus Groups (RFGs) have been established in four high emphasis reproductive science areas.  In addition, the NICHD through the SCCPIR, provides multiyear funding to support several research resources and online databases that are accessible to all NIH-supported investigators (tissue banks) or all investigators world-wide (databases).  These include the human ovary, human endometrium and non-human primate tissue banks, and a ligand analysis and assay core.  Online databases include the Ovarian Kaleidoscope Database, the Endometrial Database Resource and the Mammalian Reproductive Genetics Database.