The shared aspiration to coordinate, harmonize and consolidate the rather fragmented health research activities and initiatives among the research implementing institutions in Region III brought together the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development or PCHRD and the Department of Science & Technology Regional Office No. III (DOST-III) to initiate the formation of a research consortium for the region. The exploratory meeting on December 20, 2007 between these two agencies served as the nucleus for the birth of the Central Luzon Health Research and Development Consortium or what is more commonly known as CLHRDC.

Determined to bring to completion the aims of that December 2007 meeting, the DOST-III thereafter assembled the principal players and stakeholders in the regional health research system to present and propose the concept of a health research consortium that will ensure a coherent and coordinated health research agenda for the region. Thus, on March 14, 2008, four (4) regional government agencies, seven (7) higher education institutions and two (2) medical institutions in Central Luzon convened and unanimously agreed to work for the creation of the consortium.

Having set into motion the initial actions necessary to establish the consortium, these 13 founding institutions banded together through the formal signing of the Memorandum of Agreement on May 22, 2008 creating the Central Luzon Health Research and Development Consortium. More than 10 years after its establishment, the CLHRDC has increased its membership to 24 research implementing and coordinating institutions.

During its more than ten years of operation, the consortium has been fully supported with generous funding support principally from the PCHRD, DOST-III and the Department of Health (DOH-III). As much as PhP 12.3M has been provided by the PCHRD for consortium operations between 2010-2018. DOST-III, on the other hand, gave a P 1.0M financial assistance for a collaborative project of member-institutions in 2010 while DOH-III has already granted as much as PhP 2.8M for health research projects of consortium members.