COMMUNICATIONS

CTSA PROGRAM UPDATE
February 9, 2018

CTSA PROGRAM UPDATES

REMINDERS AND CORRECTION TO THE 2018 RPPR INSTRUCTIONS FOR KL2 AND TL1 AWARDS
Correction: The “Training Applicant Diversity Report” is not a required component of the RPPR and has been removed. The “Trainee Diversity Report” is required. The Trainee Diversity Report is attached as an Appendix in the 2018 Specific Guidelines for RPPRS for the CTSA Program and can be found here as well.
Reminder: KL2 and TL1 awards are required to report Program Outcomes using the following required tables:

References:

https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-TR-16-009.html
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/forms/data-tables.htm
https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/datatables/Consolidated_Training_Tables.pdf

The use of the Extramural Trainee Reporting and Career Tracking (xTRACT) system is encouraged to generate training tables.

References:

NIH Announces the Transition to New Research Training Tables Formats for 2016 and Upcoming Release of the xTRACT System

Extramural Trainee Reporting and Career Tracking (xTRACT) User Guide
Questions? Contact Erica Rosemond

FEBRUARY PI MEETING AGENDA
The February 28th (2 – 3 PM ET) PI Meeting will feature an NCATS Program update, and updates from CLIC and the Trial Innovation Network (TIN). Please see agenda below and here for registration.

PI MEETINGS – WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
We want to hear from the PIs about what topics or questions you would like to discuss in upcoming PI Meetings. Topic suggestions for the March PI Meeting will be collected through March 2nd 2018 by submitting them to “PI Meeting Topics” in the Suggestion Box on CLIC website. The Suggestion Box will also allow you to suggest topics for the Steering Committee, the CTSA Program Meeting, Consortium Activity, or other.

PUPDATED FY17 FUNDING TABLE
The updated funding table with total NIH direct cost funding by organization for FY17 is now available and can be found under Budget (Administrative Core) in the PAR-18-464. For questions please email NCATS Program Staff.

CTSA PROGRAM COMMUNICATIONS
Looking for the latest information on the January PI or Steering Committee Meetings? Please see the CTSA Program Consortium website or CTSA Program CLIC’s Steering Committee public web page.

STEERING COMMITTEE UPDATES

FEEDBACK ABOUT PODS
After the data is gathered, CLIC will post de-identified aggregate results from this questionnaire onto the CLIC website. No direct quotes nor any information that may identify a specific Hub will be posted. Further, CLIC will act as an honest broker and will not provide NCATS with any identifiable information from the survey. Results will be posted on the CLIC website soon!

POD LISTING
Assignments to the CTSA Program pods have been updated to reflect the new SC membership, and each pod has been notified of the changes. While the SC deliberates changes to the pod structure, pods are requested to continue as status quo until a final determination is made. A full list of pods can be found on the CLIC website.

COMMON METRICS UPDATES

COMMON METRICS PAGE ON CLIC WEBSITE
The Common Metrics website provides resources for onboarding recent hired evaluation staff on the established common metrics and training materials. Check it out at CLIC Common Metrics page.

2017 COMMON METRICS VALUES AND UPDATING TURN-THE-CURVE PLANS
This year’s deadline for your CTSA Program hub common metrics data reporting is August 30, 2018. This involves updating your hubs Common Metric values through 2017 and modifying, as needed, your Turn-the-Curve (TTC) plans for the first three metrics: Careers in Clinical and Translational Research, IRB Duration, and Pilot Funding and Publications. Updating your TTC plan includes describing any changes to underlying factors, the progress you have made by implementing selected strategies, and the results of any additional measures you are using to track progress with these strategies. As in the past, work with your teams (evaluator, content expert(s), data support person, others as warranted). As always, assistance is available from our Common Metrics team at common_metrics@clic-ctsa.org.

CLEAR IMPACT SCORECARD LICENSE TRANSITION
On May 1, 2018, the management of the Clear Impact Scorecard Licenses for hubs will transition from Tufts University to CLIC. The number of licenses supported is also changing; CLIC will purchase two licenses per hub. The option to purchase a license a third license (or more) will be available. The cost is $240/user/year.

Over the next month, Clear Impact will reach out and inform you of the transitioning licensing process. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this upcoming process, feel free to contact Lauren Chambers., Impact Consultant at Clear Impact.

2016 COMMON METRICS DATA ANALYSIS
The CLIC Common Metrics and Data teams have begun our analyses of 2016 submitted data including both the Common Metric values and Turn-the-Curve plans with the goal of identifying successes across approaches. Individual hub analysis will be shared appropriately with each hub later in the year, and a comparative presentation of de-identified and aggregated results will be presented at the Spring Program Meeting.

INFORMATICS COMMON METRICS PILOT UPDATE
The active pilot period of the Informatics Common Metric pilot has now ended. The CLI Common Metrics team is now working on the post-pilot phase, including an assessment of the metric’s utility and feasibility, and a final report with recommendations and next steps. Results of the pre-pilot assessment of all hubs, conducted in late September 2017 is posted on the Common Metrics-Pilot Testing of CLIC’s website.

Questions? Contact CLIC Common Metrics implementation team or call 585-276-4817.

DOMAIN TASK FORCE UPDATES

CLIC WEBSITE REGISTRATION
You MUST REGISTER on the CLIC website to access DTF/WG meeting materials. Please contact the appropriate DTF/WG Coordinator, Liaison, or the CLIC helpdesk if you require assistance.

The Collaboration / Engagement DTF, Workforce DTF and Methods and Processes DTF are having in-person meetings on Thursday April 19th at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the Translational Science 2018 Meeting. Registration is through the CTSA Program Meeting link and more information is below.

CCOLLABORATION / ENGAGEMENT DOMAIN TASKFORCE
The Collaboration / Engagement DTF is holding an in-person meeting on Thursday, April 19 from 12:30 – 4:30pm. This meeting is open to the full DTF membership along with anyone who is interested in Collaboration, Community Engagement or Team Science. Additional details and the meeting agenda will be shared in March.

The Dissemination, Implementation, and Knowledge Transfer Working group is working on its first deliverable; “Dissemination and Implementation Activities Across the CTSA Consortium: Report from a Survey of CTSA Principal Investigators.” This deliverable reports on the responses from 59% (37/63) of the CTSA leaders about CTSA support for Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) resources, trainings, and scientific projects, challenges and barriers to developing and supporting D&I activities, and the services and resources that can help CTSAs support researchers to include dissemination and implementation research activities in their work.

This report will be delivered to the C/E DTF leadership in March 2018.

For more information, contact Laura-Mae Baldwin , Institute of Translational Health Sciences, University of Washington; Rowena Dolor, Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute, Duke University; Paul Meissner, Einstein/Montefiore Institute for Clinical and Translational Research.

Collaboration / Engagement DTF questions? Please contact help@clic-ctsa.org.

METHODS AND PROCESSES DOMAIN TASKFORCE
The Methods and Processes DTF is holding an in-person meeting on Thursday, April 19th from 8:30-11:30am. We would like to extend a call for topics as we continue to assemble the agenda in hopes for a vibrant discussion.

The Methods and Processes Lead Team would like to welcome Brad Evanoff (Washington University at St. Louis) as their new NCATS Steering Committee appointed Co-chair. Welcome aboard Brad!

Methods and Processes DTF questions? Please contact help@clic-ctsa.org.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT DOMAIN TASKFORCE
The Workforce DTF is holding an in-person meeting on Thursday, April 19th from 10AM-2PM. Please keep an eye out for an email communication regarding agenda topics. We very much would like your input, as we finalize the topics and format to enhance its value.

Workforce Development DTF questions? Please contact help@clic-ctsa.org.

WINFORMATICS DOMAIN TASKFORCE
The Informatics DTF Lead Team would like to welcome Donald Lloyd-Jones (Northwestern University) as their new NCATS Steering Committee appointed Co-chair. Welcome!

The Informatics DTF is holding an in-person meeting on Friday, March 16, 2018 from 7:30AM-12:30PM at the Parc 55 San Francisco Hotel, in San Francisco in conjunction with the AMIA 2018 Informatics Summit. Register here: REGISTRATION FORM

The focus of this meeting will be to kick off the next phase of iDTF collaborative work. The goal of the meeting will thus be to kickoff CD2H working groups in concert with starting the process to form new iDTF working groups. The result should be a set of synergistic CD2H and iDTF working groups without redundancy and overlap making best use of all our finite resources.

The first round of working groups has completed or are wrapping up their work.

The Precision Medicine Working Group went on hiatus in light of the All of Us Initiative efforts without a clear role for CTSA network identified.

The Digital Imaging Working Group achieved their deliverable, assessing the status of imaging informatics capabilities across the CTSAs and reporting such. This working group is sunsetting.

The EHR Data Reuse in Recruitment Working Group completed their deliverable – (Paper Citation:
Obeid, J., Beskow, L., Rape, M., Gouripeddi, R., Black, R., Cimino, J., Embi, P., Weng, C., Marnocha R., and Buse, J. for the Methods and Process and Informatics DTF Workgroup (2017). A survey of practices for the use of electronic health records to support research recruitment. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, 1(4), 246-252. doi:10.1017/cts.2017.301.)

The Sustainable Informatics Infrastructure Working Group did an initial study of approaches to research computing sustainability that was so well received at the 2017 f2f that many more CTSAs wanted to participate. This additional data has been analyzed and a final draft paper is close to submission.

Informatics DTF questions? Please contact help@clic-ctsa.org.

ACCRUAL TO CLINICAL TRIALS (ACT) NETWORK

ACT NETWORK NEWSLETTER

The ACT Network, a real-time platform allowing researchers to explore and validate feasibility for clinical studies across the CTSA consortium, published its first monthly newsletter last month to current and onboarding ACT sites. The monthly newsletter is designed to provide regular updates on the launch of the ACT Network across the CTSA consortium, in addition to work group activities and general network information. If you would like to subscribe to the monthly newsletter, you can do so here

OPPORTUNITIES

COLLABORATIVE INNOVATION AWARDS
Notice of Change of Application Due Date to PA-16-328 “Limited Competition: Administrative Supplements to Enhance Network Capacity: Collaborative Opportunities for the CTSA Program (Admin Supp)”

Purpose: The purpose of this Notice is to change the Key Dates in PA-16-328 , “Limited Competition: Administrative Supplements to Enhance Network Capacity: Collaborative Opportunities for the CTSA Program (Admin Supp)” to remove the March 1, 2018 receipt and July, 2018 award date.

Questions? Contact Erica Rosemond

Notice of Modifications for PAR-18-244 “Collaborative Innovation Award, Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)”

Purpose: The purpose of this Notice is make modifications for PAR-18-244 “Collaborative Innovation Award, Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)” for March 8, 2018 and subsequent due dates, to expand the list of high priority translational research opportunities to conduct novel clinical research studies intended to develop and test models of care for Opioid Use Disorders within medical settings including primary care, emergency departments, and neonatal units.

In addition, this research provides the opportunity to explore many translational science barriers: how to recruit and retain difficult to reach populations, harnessing technology to simultaneously deliver effective care and facilitate the conduct of research, and integrating research into the workflow of busy clinical settings, etc.

Partnerships between CTSA Program hubs and affiliates in rural areas of the country most impacted by the opioid epidemic including the North East, the Appalachian Region, and New Mexico, as well as partnerships with NIDA Clinical Trials Network Nodes in these regions are of strong programmatic interest.

Please see the notice for some examples of additional high priority opportunities.

Questions? Contact PJ Brooks

NIH GENOME EDITING PROGRAM
Purpose: The National Institutes of Health will launch an effort aimed at removing barriers that slow the adoption of genome editing for treating patients. These researchers will collaborate to improve the delivery mechanisms for targeting gene editing tools in patients, develop new and improved genome editors, develop assays for testing the safety and efficacy of the genome editing tools in animal and human cells, and assemble a genome editing toolkit containing the resulting knowledge, methods, and tools to be shared with the scientific community. The program is funded by NIH’s Common Fund. Link to Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs)

Questions? Contact PJ Brooks

ANNOUNCEMENTS

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION – MINI-SABBATICALS AT YOUR HUBS
The CTSAs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Massachusetts and New York University have received funding from NCATS (UL1TR001417) to develop guiding best practices for “mini-sabbatical” experiences that are offered at institutions that are part of the CTSA Program. For more information please see here. As a first step to understanding how mini-sabbaticals are utilized across CTSAs, they are asking hubs a few brief questions about current and planned mini-sabbatical offerings at their institution, and to identify appropriate persons to reach out to for telephone interviews to learn about mini-sabbatical experiences affiliated with their CTSAs. Please take a few minutes to fill out this voluntary request for information: CTSA Mini-Sabbaticals Survey. Results from the survey will be analyzed and aggregated results will be shared at a later date.

Questions? Contact a href=”mailto:Stephenie.Lemon@umassmed.edu”>Stephenie Lemon

REGISTRATION – SPRING CTSA PROGRAM MEETING
The Spring CTSA Program Meeting is will be held April 18 – 19, 2018 at the Marriott Wardman Park, 2660 Woodley Rd NW Washington, DC 20008. To register please fill out the registration form or access it from the events page on CLIC website.

Registration closes Monday April 2nd 2018.

Tentative Agenda:

*Organized by Translational Science 2018

MEETINGS ON CLIC WEBSITE
CTSA Program hubs can find information about meetings and events on the events page on the CLIC website, this page was created to spread the word about hub-sponsored conferences, activities, and/or items relevant to the CTSA Program and the advancement of translational science. If you would like to showcase an event please fill the event form (login required) on the CLIC website.

Upcoming Meetings

Questions? Contact help@clic-ctsa.org.

*CLIC will post meeting summaries from the S/C calls onto the CLIC-CTSA Program website and continue to circulate monthly CTSA Program newsletters with important project-level updates and consortium activities.
**To add the PI Meeting to your calendar: Please make sure that once you submit the completed registration form, choose “add to calendar” on the Registration Approval page OR in the Confirmation email that you receive, then open and save the downloaded calendar file.

You can find this or any of the past CTSA Program Updates on the CTSA Program Communications page.