In 2016, NIA released a funding opportunity announcement inviting applications for a new academic network called the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC). The announcement incorporated many new ideas resulting from the decades of experience in the field, including the value of a central institutional review board, standing support for trial sites and separation of project funding from the parent grant mechanism, among others. The first ACTC grant was awarded to a team of investigators at three institutions, USC, Harvard and the Mayo Clinic.