Development of stroke recovery therapies is an active field of research and represents an opportunity to reduce the global impact of stroke as the leading cause of acquired, long-term disability in adults. The negative outcomes of recent large-scale clinical trials have highlighted deficiencies in the translational process and endanger the trajectory of post-stroke recovery research. Because of this, a number of strategies have been recommended by experts to better navigate the translational pipeline. To assist the field in advancing to the next stage for successful clinical translation, the goal of this chapter is to discuss concepts relevant to the experimental design of in vivo preclinical pharmacological studies to make them clinically relevant and informative for future trials.