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Translational Research Institute at UAMS Receives $3.5M Grant

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The University of Arkansas For Medical Sciences announced Wednesday that its Translational Research Institute has received a $3.5 million Clinical and Translational Science Award.

The funding will be distributed through Aug. 31 and comes from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

The funding will enable UAMS to continue its mission of accelerating scientific discovery with innovative programs that help researchers translate their findings into new knowledge and treatments, according to Laura James, director of the institute and UAMS associate vice chancellor for clinical and translational research.

She said in a news release, “The new grant allows us to get services to researchers, but more importantly, it allows UAMS, and our research partners, to tackle the health challenges we face here in Arkansas. Our mission goes beyond research and really helps us as an academic community take better care of patients. The secondary effects of this grant will have a very important impact on Arkansas that include benefits to our local workforce, economy and productivity as Arkansans.”

The award will be used to start a new informatics research consultation service, a new research subject recruitment program and statistical services to ensure studies are properly designed to answer research questions. It will also fund dissemination services, so that the findings of research studies are communicated to numerous audiences, including research participants, the local community, other researchers, treating physicians and national audiences.

The institute will apply for five years of CTSA funding in May 2018. If the May application is fully funded, the award will likely total more than $25 million. The first CTSA grant was awarded to UAMS in 2009.

Receipt of the award also ensures that UAMS remains a member of the national CTSA consortium, made up of 62 academic research institutions across the country.

As a CTSA-funded site, UAMS helps researchers overcome obstacles to their work; provides patients more opportunities to participate in clinical trials; and keeps, along with other institutions, large data sets to develop state-of-the-art solutions to health challenges. 

In the last three years, the institute has launched or improved several research resources, including:

  • ARresearch.org, a volunteer research participant registry and website.
  • Arkansas Clinical Data Repository, which researchers can use to understand patterns in data that will provide a framework to guide future studies testing new research treatments or approaches.
  • UAMS Profiles, an online researcher-to-researcher networking/collaboration tool.
  • TRI Portal, a cost-saving electronic request system for researchers.

The institute also partners with the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health to provide a community engagement program to increase public involvement and participation in research at UAMS. 

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