Propose a Working Committee Study

How to Propose a Working Committee Study

CIBMTR supports investigators in conducting observational studies in cellular therapies. Anyone willing to actively participate in the conduct of the study and follow the study development and management process may propose a study. The Study Proposal Outline will help you prepare your proposal for submission. You may then submit your proposal here: CIBMTR Study Proposal Form (Deadline for the 2027 Tandem Meetings: September 21, 2026).

For 2027, CIBMTR will implement several new refinements to enhance prioritization, engagement, and impact:

Fewer proposal presentations: The committee will limit presentation time during in person working committee meetings to approximately 3-5 high impact proposals to prioritize studies with the greatest potential to change practice and to support completion of ongoing work.
**NEW** Community-informed proposal selection: The committee will share short summaries of selected proposals in advance of the Tandem Meetings and will invite the community to rank priorities through a structured survey. The committee will circulate the survey to committee members at the end of October and will allow three weeks for responses. Survey results will help determine which proposals the committee presents at the Tandem Meetings.
Expanded focus of meetings: With fewer proposal presentations, the committee will dedicate additional meeting time to high-priority topics, such as study progress, backlog transparency, data considerations, and strategic scientific direction.

Please note, this change to proposals is planned for 2027 only. Following the 2027 Tandem Meetings, we will gather community feedback through a survey on this year's proposal approach to help inform decisions for future years.

Updates to the proposal submission process from last year (2026 Tandem Meetings) remain in place. Specifically:

Proposals will not be accepted from individuals who are:
- Listed as first or senior author on a manuscript that has been in preparation for more than one year, or
- Serving as first or senior principal investigator (PI) on two or more current CIBMTR studies.
All other individuals may submit as many as two proposals to CIBMTR for consideration.

Proposal preparation

Prior to submitting a proposal, we strongly encourage investigators to review:

CIBMTR Study Proposal Guidance
Study Proposal Outline (outline of proposal requirements contained in the online form)
TED vs CRF Level Reporting
Financial Conflict of Interest Policies (MCW and NMDP): ensure research integrity.

This information will assist you in identifying existing research and avoid duplication of work already accomplished or those in progress.

Proposal submission and review process

Submit your proposal to the CIBMTR Coordinating Center through the CIBMTR Study Proposal Form, to be considered for discussion at a Working Committee meeting (Deadline for the 2027 Tandem Meetings: September 21, 2026). A staff member will assign your proposal a number and forward it to the Working Committee Scientific Director and the Statistician, who reviews the proposal for feasibility with CIBMTR data and potential conflict with active studies. The Statistician then forwards the proposal to the Working Committee Chairs for discussion.

In advance of the February Tandem Meetings I Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR, the Working Committee Statistician prepares a table of characteristics of patient data based on the population defined in the proposal. This information is used during the presentation at the Working Committee meeting.

Once cleared to move forward, the Statistician contacts the investigator; all investigators are encouraged to personally present their proposals to the full Working Committee each February. After presentation and discussion, Working Committee members score each proposal, assigning a scientific impact score to each.

NOTE: Most proposals will follow this path. However, in special circumstances, a proposal deemed of high merit may be forwarded directly to the Working Committee ("fast-tracked") for consideration at another time of the year.

NOTE: If the study requires biological samples from the Research Sample Repository, in addition to the review process described here, investigators must include a biosketch or brief curriculum vitae documenting experience in the laboratory methods proposed. The NMDP Institutional Review Board must also review proposed studies before samples can be distributed.

If the study requires patient-reported outcomes (PRO) data collected by CIBMTR, the proposal should include: 1) A detailed description of the PRO domains, timepoints, and proposed analysis of PROs; 2) A description of the hypothesis specific to PROs.

For additional information regarding which PRO measures have been collected and timepoints of collection, please reach out to the PRO leadership team.

Request CIBMTR Information

To aid in clinical decision-making, protocol development, or other information-specific needs, CIBMTR offers access to descriptive statistics for populations of interest and/or a univariate analysis of overall survival. These data are available to investigators, physicians, corporations, and individuals worldwide upon request.

Request Information