In 2007, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (DAB) and its affiliates completed three important, large-scale strategic planning efforts. Together, these processes generated a """"""""blueprint for our research future"""""""" that lays the foundation to transform our substantial clinical and translational research enterprise through integration and innovation across all disciplines, Schools, and our health care system. This transformation will be driven by the DAB Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS). The CCTS vision is to transform the DAB environment by building productive and efficient interdisciplinary research teams through educational ingenuity, regulatory reorganization, resource coordination, and methodological innovation. The mission is to develop a transformative infrastructure that spans the spectrum from preclinical research to bench-to-bedside translation (T1 research) to community implementation (T2 research), and will meet 5 goals: 1) transform the Investigator;2) transform the Training Environment;3) transform the Resource Infrastructure;4) transform the Approach to Interdisciplinary Research via an emphasis on outcomes research and health disparities research;and 5) establish a new Research Model through the Self-Monitoring and Improvement Program. To meet these goals, the CCTS will rely on: 1) a re-organized reporting structure that assures the PI full institutional support in implementing the CCTS roadmap;2) a revised CCTS leadership that includes faculty from the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Health Professions, and Optometry;and 3) innovative partnerships involving UAB, Southern Research Institute (our affiliated, not-for-profit research organization for preclinical drug discovery/development), the Children's Health System, the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the greater Birmingham community, and a long-standing collaborative network that involves Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and underprivileged communities in our region. UAB, the Health System, Health Services Foundation, Research Foundation, and Southern Research Institute have made substantial commitments to the CCTS including: 1) significant new funding for the clinical and translational research infrastructure (~$150 million, of which over $18 million are directly for CCTS activities and programs);2) a redesigned and enhanced biomedical informatics infrastructure;and 3) over 20,000 sf of prime clinical and administrative space. When combined, the re-organized CCTS governance and leadership, the substantial commitment of funds and resources, the interdisciplinary culture of UAB, and the new CCTS programs, will create a transformed environment for clinical and translational research that will benefit our trainees, investigators, patients, community, and the national CTSA effort.
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