Prior to the establishment of the NPCRC, there was no organizing force promoting and facilitating the conduct of palliative care research. Because departments or divisions of palliative medicine do not yet exist in most medical schools, palliative care research is mainly conducted by a small number of highly successful investigators working in isolation from each other at a handful of medical schools in the United States.

The NPCRC provides an administrative home to promote intellectual exchange, sharing of resources (e.g., biostatisticians) and access to data from ongoing studies to plan and support new research. Furthermore, the Center takes a collaborative approach to establishing its funding priorities.