Abstract
Centers of excellence are widely acknowledged as a mechanism to promote scientific advances in a particular field of science, but until recently, there have been no end-of-life or palliative care research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health. The purpose of this article was to describe aims, framework, and organizational structure of the first National Institutes of Health-funded center of excellence on end-of-life research, the Center for End-of-Life Transition Research, and the advances in end-of-life research that the Center for End-of-Life Transition Research will facilitate. The teams of researchers involved in the Center for End-of-Life Transition Research have grown impressively since it was funded in 2007. Collectively, the teams are on target to accomplish all of the original goals for this 5-year award.