VA Cooperative Studies Program (CSP)

Overview

The VA Cooperative Studies Program is the Division of VA Research and Development that is responsible for the planning and conduct of large multicenter clinical trials and epidemiological studies in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Our mission statement is:

To advance the health and care of Veterans through cooperative research studies that produce innovative and effective solutions to Veteran and national healthcare problems.

To achieve this mission, CSP has a clinical research infrastructure that operates under the management of Central Office in Washington, D.C. CSP is comprised of professional experts at five data & statistical coordinating centers, a clinical research pharmacy coordinating center, and four epidemiological resource centers. Additionally, CSP partners with the VA Health Economics Resource Center to perform economic analyses on its clinical trials.

CSP aims to take a quality-based approach in all its activities. To this end, the CSP coordinating centers have adopted the following quality policy:

To improve Veteran and national healthcare by conducting cooperative research studies that are well-designed, produce high quality data, protect research participants and comply with applicable requirements and standards, while continuously improving the quality management system.

Through collaborative efforts within VA and with other federal, international, university, and private industry partners, CSP accomplishments have included key research findings across a range of diseases and have helped to provide definitive evidence for clinical practice within VA and the nation. From its initial beginnings in the 1940s, CSP continues to be a national and international leader in clinical research.