Strong Star

What Strong Star does

STRONG STAR (South Texas Research Organizational Network Guiding Studies on Trauma and Resilience) is a multi-institutional research consortium established in 2008 and led by UT Health San Antonio (now part of The University of Texas at San Antonio). It develops and evaluates early interventions for the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological health conditions — primarily PTSD, traumatic brain injury, sleep disturbance, chronic pain, suicide, substance use disorders, and tinnitus — in active duty U.S. military personnel, veterans, and (increasingly) first responders. The consortium coordinates more than 150 investigators across 50+ military, VA, and civilian institutions, with approximately 100 affiliated projects funded separately by federal, state, and private sources.

The consortium's core technology portfolio spans novel pharmacological interventions (esketamine/Spravato, MDMA-enhanced Prolonged Exposure, IM ketamine, quetiapine), neurostimulation modalities (patented MRI-guided Navigated TMS, transcranial direct current stimulation with the Robot Factory Brain Games platform, Stellate Ganglion Block), and adapted evidence-based psychotherapies (Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, Written Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Conjoint Therapy, T3 PTSD, CBT-I, CBT-N, CART, Crisis Response Planning). Operationally, the consortium operates the National Center for Warrior Resiliency (grant-funded trauma care), the fee-for-service PTSD Remission Program (intensive three-week PE therapy), the Strong Families Support and Prevention Program for military families, and the STRONG STAR Training Initiative (SSTI) which disseminates evidence-based treatments to clinicians nationwide through in-person workshops and web-based platforms (CBTIweb.org, CBTNightmaresweb.org).

The business model is overwhelmingly grant-funded: primary revenue comes from federal research grants (DoD, VA, NIH), supplemented by state government grants (Texas Health and Human Services Commission, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services) and private foundation grants (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Bob Woodruff Foundation, Gavin Farrel Foundation). Clinical research services are provided at no charge to participants; only the PTSD Remission Program operates on a fee-for-service basis. As a nonprofit academic consortium under UT San Antonio, STRONG STAR is governed by academic leadership (Director Alan L. Peterson, PhD, ABPP) rather than equity ownership, and operates as a research infrastructure rather than a commercial enterprise.

Name

Strong Star

Legal name

STRONG STAR Consortium

Website

https://strongstar.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

STRONG STAR is a multi-institutional research consortium, led by UT Health San Antonio, that develops and evaluates psychological health treatments — including novel neurostimulation, pharmacotherapies, and psychotherapies — for active duty military personnel, veterans, and first responders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Military and Veterans Psychological Health Research

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000), Services-Misc Health & Allied Services, Nec (8090)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYHLAJAAAI

Military & Veterans Public Health Departments

Healthcare & Life Sciences/Public Health, Government & Regulators/Public Health Agencies & Health Departments

Keywords

• PTSD clinical research
• Military behavioral health
• Trauma treatment trials
• Veteran mental health
• Psychological health consortium

Headquarters

HQ city

San Antonio

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Federal Research Grants: Primary funding from U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for psychological health and TBI research programs. Additional funding from National Institutes of Health (NIH) for specific research projects.
2. Private Foundation Grants: Funding from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Bob Woodruff Foundation, Gavin Farrel Foundation, and other private donors supporting clinical programs and training initiatives.
3. State Government Grants: Texas Health and Human Services Commission through Texas Veterans + Family Alliance Grant Program; Texas Department of Family Support Services grants supporting military family programs.
4. Clinical Research Services: As a research consortium, services are provided at no charge to participants through grant funding. The PTSD Remission Program operates on a fee-for-service basis for non-research clinical care.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

STRONG STAR is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research consortium that develops and evaluates early interventions for the prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological health conditions in military personnel, veterans, and first responders. It operates free, grant-funded clinical programs (National Center for Warrior Resiliency; Strong Families Support and Prevention Program), a fee-for-service intensive PTSD Remission Program, and a clinician training initiative (SSTI) supported by clinical trials conducted across military, VA, and civilian partner institutions.

Product overview

Strong Star is a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research consortium (not a technology product company) focused on developing and evaluating early interventions for prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological health conditions in military personnel, veterans, and first responders. The consortium offers clinical treatment programs through its National Center for Warrior Resiliency (free evidence-based trauma therapies including CPT, PE, WET, CBT-I, CBT-N, CBCT, PREP, and the Unified Protocol) and its PTSD Remission Program (fee-for-service intensive PE therapy). The Strong Families Support and Prevention Program provides free prevention and trauma-focused services for military families. The STRONG STAR Training Initiative (SSTI) translates research into practice through training programs including web-based provider trainings for CBT-I (CBTIweb.org) and CBT for nightmares (CBTNightmaresweb.org). The consortium conducts extensive clinical trials including treatments for PTSD combined with Stellate Ganglion Block, esketamine, navigated TMS, MDMA, and novel therapies such as T3 PTSD (non-trauma treatment for TBI), CART (for anger/aggression), Robot Factory with tDCS (for mild TBI), crisis response planning, and accelerated treatment for co-occurring insomnia, nightmares, and PTSD.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• National Center for Warrior Resiliency: Clinical care program for adults battling trauma, providing trauma-focused psychological assessment and evidence-based treatments for PTSD and co-occurring conditions at no charge.
• Strong Families Support & Prevention Program
• STRONG STAR Training Initiative (SSTI)
• San Antonio Combat PTSD Conference

Products and services

• National Center for Warrior Resiliency

Quantifiable outcome

• Navigated TMS showed 85% effectiveness for combat-related PTSD when added to psychotherapy in study of 119 active-duty military and veteran participants
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and major.

• VA National Center for PTSDcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Joint leadership with UT Health San Antonio for the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD (CAP), established in 2013 under joint DoD-VA National Research Action Plan called for by President Obama. Built on STRONG STAR's infrastructure to launch additional PTSD and related conditions research.
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at San AntonioflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2008Lead institution and founding partner of the STRONG STAR Consortium. UT Health San Antonio (now part of The University of Texas at San Antonio) provides leadership, research facilities, faculty investigators, and administrative infrastructure for the consortium. Established original STRONG STAR Multidisciplinary PTSD Research Consortium in 2008 with DoD funding.
• Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center (Fort Hood)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary military treatment facility partner providing access to active duty service members for clinical trials. Home to Intrepid Spirit Center specializing in TBI care. Multiple ongoing STRONG STAR clinical trials conducted at this site including studies on PTSD, TBI, insomnia, and suicide prevention.
• Brooke Army Medical CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSan Antonio military medical center collaborating on trauma research and clinical trials as part of the South Texas military healthcare network.
• South Texas Veterans Health Care SystemcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVA healthcare system providing veteran patient access for research and treatment programs, supporting clinical trials and longitudinal follow-up studies.
• Emory UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborator on $4.9M DoD-funded MDMA-enhanced PTSD therapy study led by UT Health San Antonio researchers. Partnership for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research.
• University of PittsburghmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLead institution for BRAIN Health research program on repetitive mTBI and head impact exposures. Multiple collaborative studies including BRAIN Health Projects 1 and 4. UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program involvement.
• Boston UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration with VA Boston Healthcare System on PTSD treatment research including Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide Prevention trial led by Brian Marx, PhD.
• Stanford UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner on Accelerated Treatment for Co-occurring Insomnia, Nightmares, and PTSD research with faculty from Stanford and VA Palo Alto Health Care System.
• Pennsylvania State UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed by Steffany Fredman, PhD, conducting couples therapy PTSD research including randomized trial of intensive multi-couple group therapy vs relationship education.
• The Ohio State UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with Craig Bryan, PsyD, on suicide prevention research including Crisis Response Planning and Augmenting Massed CPT for PTSD to prevent suicide risk.
• Uniformed Services University of the Health SciencescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational military health sciences university collaborating as part of the multi-institutional research network addressing psychological health conditions.
• Duke UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDouglas Williamson, PhD, leads longitudinal follow-up of combat soldiers previously assessed before and after deployment for PTSD research through the STRONG STAR-CAP Longitudinal Outcomes Project.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• VA National Center for PTSD: The federal VA hub for PTSD research, treatment, and training. Strong Star's CAP consortium is co-led with VA's National Center for PTSD, making it the closest comparator in mission, federal sponsorship, and research portfolio.
• Home Base (Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital): A leading clinical-care and research program for post-9/11 veterans and families with PTSD/TBI, similarly combining clinical service, research, and clinician training — directly comparable to Strong Star's NCWR and SSTI model.
• Cohen Veterans Network: National nonprofit network delivering outpatient mental health care to veterans and military families, with embedded research and clinician-training components. Comparable in target population and integrated care-plus-training model.
• Center for Deployment Psychology (Uniformed Services University): DoD-sponsored center training military and civilian providers in evidence-based PTSD and deployment-related psychological health treatments. Direct overlap with Strong Star's SSTI mission and military training focus.
• Massachusetts General Hospital — Home Base: Duplicate entry noted; primary clinical-research program for post-9/11 veterans and families, with a national training footprint and PTSD/TBI focus closely matching Strong Star.

Broad incumbents

• RAND Corporation: Long-standing federally funded research organization conducting major studies on military and veteran psychological health, TBI, and force readiness. Comparable as a defense-research consumer of DoD/VA dollars, though broader in scope.
• Warrior Care Network (Wounded Warrior Project): Coalition of academic medical centers delivering intensive PTSD and TBI treatment programs to veterans. Comparable as a multi-site clinical and research consortium serving the same population with similar treatment modalities.

Emerging players

• McLean Hospital (Harvard Medical School) — Anxiety Disorders Division: Major academic psychiatric hospital running the influential Anxiety Mastery Program and PTSD clinical trials (Prolonged Exposure originator). Comparable as a translational research-to-clinical-care institution in evidence-based PTSD therapies.
• Duke University — Durham VA PTSD Research Program: Academic-VA partnership running large PTSD RCTs (e.g., STRONG STAR-CAP longitudinal outcomes led by Williamson). Comparable as a competing federally funded PTSD research hub leveraging VA populations.

Others

• Bob Woodruff Foundation: Major veteran-focused funder supporting clinical programs and research, including Strong Star's SSTI. Comparable as a private philanthropic counterpart addressing the same veteran mental-health ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/strongstar_ptsd
• Facebookfacebook.com/strongstar.ptsd
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/strong-star-consortium

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Strong Star