The program was established by the Department of the Navy in 1986 and transferred to the NHLBI in 1989. The purpose was to develop and maintain a registry of individuals willing to donate bone marrow for patients in need of transplants, to facilitate marrow transplants by serving as a coordinating and communications center for a network of donor, collection and transplant centers in the United States and internationally, and to facilitate research into the efficacy of unrelated donor marrow transplants. In 1992, the program was enlarged to support a limited number of demonstration projects to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative models for minority marrow donor recruitment. In 1995, the NMDP was transferred to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), although NHLBI provided funds in this year.