The NIH effort to Re-engineer the Clinical Research Enterprise provides an opportunity for academic medical centers to reorganize their clinical research infrastructures into an integrated institutional home. The overarching goal is to enhance the quality and efficiency of clinical and translational research and to support the training of new clinical and translational science investigators. The purpose of this proposal is to plan activities to design the University of Maryland (UM) Clinical and Translational Science Research Center (CTSRC). These activities will include developing plans for the content, governance, administration, and evaluation of the Center. In addition, the planning process will include effecting the cultural changes at UMB needed to launch the concepts of team science and the discrete discipline of clinical and translational science. The University of Maryland Baltimore has many of the elements of a CTSRC, including a committed clinician scientist and administrative team to provide leadership as well as collaborating institutions to ensure multidisciplinary participation. These institutions include the UM Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work, and Law as well as the Graduate School. In addition, UM has both a K30 Curriculum Development Award with a Masters Degree in Clinical Research and a Roadmap K12 Award for Multidisciplinary Clinical Research Career Development. We plan to build a T-32 like program in clinical and translational research. Our planning process will be built around the work of 4 committees: an Executive Committee, Training/Career Development/Pilot Studies Committee, Resources and Services Committee, and an internal advisory committee. The process will include a needs assessment, planning retreat, and site visits to other funded clinical and translational science awardees. The planning grant will support efforts to identify components of the CTSRC particularly in the areas of novel methodologies, bioinformatics, study design and biostatistics, regulatory support, participant and clinical interactions, community engagement, and training and career development. ? ? ?
