an organization that agrees to accept additional responsibilities for the conduct of a research project. Its employees or agents must maintain an operations center to provide for the scientific oversight and human participant protection for all of the sites involved in the project Their functions include, but are not necessarily limited to data safety and monitoring, data analysis, protocol development, adverse event reporting and assurance verification.

Headquarters for a multisite trial that collects all data.

The NMDP Coordinating Center, office located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, establishes standards, policies, and procedures for its Network of Transplant, Donor, Apheresis and Collection Centers, Cord Blood Banks, Recruitment Groups and Cooperative Registries. From this office, Network Centers performance is monitored; patients' searches for compatible unrelated donors are coordinated; and communication between Network members is facilitated. The scheduling, coordination, transport and tracking of unrelated stem cell collections are managed by the Coordinating Center.