Who We Are
The RDCRN program is designed to advance medical research on rare diseases by providing support for clinical studies and facilitating collaboration, study enrollment and data sharing. Through the RDCRN consortia, physician scientists and their multidisciplinary teams work together with patient advocacy groups to study nearly 200 rare diseases at sites across the nation.
Learn About Our Consortia Learn About Our Data Management Coordinating Center
Research groups funded
Diseases studied
Patient advocacy partners
NIH Announces Funding to Establish and Strengthen Rare Disease Research Groups
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded approximately $26 million in grants in the fiscal year 2025 to begin the fifth cycle of funding for the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN).
Rare Research Report: October 2025
Each month, we share summaries of recent Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network grant-funded publications. Catch up on RDCRN research for October 2025.
Dystonia Coalition: Advice and Accomplishments from 15 Years of Dystonia Research
Principal Investigator Hyder Jinnah, MD, PhD, shares advice and accomplishments from 15 years of dystonia research.
Training the Next Generation of Researchers
Our consortia place a high priority on the recruitment, training and support of early career researchers due to the significant need for well-trained clinical researchers in the rare diseases field.
Find OpportunitiesInformation for Patients and Families
Our network focuses on clinical research and does not generally support clinical care outside research activities. View the diseases that we currently study here.
If you are looking for information on rare diseases not currently studied by the RDCRN, visit the NIH’s Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD), which helps the public find reliable information about rare and genetic diseases. Contact their specialists at 888-205-2311 or email GARDinfo@nih.gov.
NIH Funding Institutes, Centers, and Offices
Established by Congress under the Rare Diseases Act in 2002, RDCRN is an initiative of the Division of Rare Diseases Research Innovation at the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Our network, now in its fifth five-year funding cycle, is a partnership with funding and programmatic support provided by Institutes, Centers and Offices across the NIH.