The University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) proposes a planning process to establish the Heartland Institute for Clinical Research (HICR), a multidisciplinary home for clinical and translational sciences, and to develop a full CTSA application to further support the HICR. This proposal capitalizes on the research and research infrastructure strengths of KUMC and focuses not only on coordinating resources dispersed across KUMC and our 3 Schools, but also on integrating the strengths and resources of the KU Lawrence campus, of the Wichita campus of our medical school, and of other partnering institutions in the greater KC area. With the most mature and well developed academic bioscience research programs in the state of Kansas and the KC metropolitan area, KUMC is the logical place to house the HICR. Establishing the HICR at KUMC and as a Kansas City regional resource is congruent with other activities aimed at making Kansas City a center of excellence in life sciences research. The planning process proposed here will enhance the depth and breadth of our existing clinical and translational research educational programs by establishing an Education Center within the HICR that will house our current K30, develop a new K12 and T32 for clinical and translational research training, and coordinate and enhance our existing degree programs in clinical research. We also propose to expand our young GCRC as part of a new Clinical Research Resources Center in the HICR, create centers for novel methods and translational technologies, for biostatistics and informatics, for regulatory support, and for health disparities research.
Major aims of this Planning proposal include developing the necessary partnership agreements to serve all partnering institutions, engaging the private sector life sciences business community for increased opportunities for clinical and translational research, and engaging the community and local research participant constituencies as active voices in developing procedures and policies for research participant interactions within the HICR. We have established a planning committee structure and have begun work to accomplish these goals. At the end of this planning process we anticipate the HICR will be established with the necessary structure and resources to support a successful application for a full CTSA. Specifically, the HICR will have Board of Regents approval; T32 and K12 clinical research training proposals will be developed; formal partnership agreements with collaborating institutions identifying each partner's contributions to and benefits from the HICR will be finalized; mechanisms to coordinate the use of technologies for clinical research will be in place; a resource bank of clinical and translational research opportunities in collaboration with the private sector will be established; and a policy and procedure manual to guide investigator interactions with potential and active research participants will be developed.
