9.1.2 Rationale for Goals and Aims The IHSF is a central component of the EHSRC, promoting human-centered research. An emphasis on human studies has been a long-standing strength of the EHSRC;this facility provides the infrastructure to conduct such studies with safety (to both research subjects and investigators), reproducibility, and rigorous scientific approaches. The IHSF supports radiological imaging, bronchoscopies, and other services needed to translate basic investigations into clinical studies. A significant change in the IHSF since our previous application has been driven by the awarding of a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) to the U.I. ICTS. This development has led to a significant (over $10 million) investment by the University into research infrastructure and facilities from which our EHSRC investigators can benefit. Although the ICST provides outstanding facilities available for human research, its strengths are centered on subject interactions;the IHSF provides support in specific research modalities, including human exposures, enhanced pulmonary function testing, bronchoscopy, and imaging for EHS-related research. We have enhanced the Center services to ensure that EHSRC researchers are able to maximize the potential for translational environmental health science research. Being able to access both ICTS resources as well as EHSRC facilities is a great opportunity for center investigators. We will support investigators using these state-of-the-art facilities by enhanced study design, IRB support, measurements, biological sampling. and specimen analyses. Furthermore, we will subsidize the costs of using the ICTS facilities. The University of Iowa ICST has initiated a policy of recharges for all studies. This is gradated by funding source, so that industry-initiated, industry-sponsored trials are charged the actual cost of providing services (including protocol review, document preparation, clinical services, etc), and NIH-funded studies are charged discounted fees, generally by 50%. Because we recognize that this cost-shifting will provide a barrier for new and non-funded investigators;to support our investigators, we propose to cover a substantial portion of this """"""""co-pay"""""""" for EHSRC members. We propose to fully cover (up to a maximum of $5,000/study) the ICTS charge-backs for EHSRC Pilot Grant recipients and K-awardees, and cover half of these costs (up to a maximum of $2,500/study) for other EHSRC investigators whose projects are within the purview of our EHSRC.
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