CTSA PROGRAM STEERING COMMITTEE
ANNOUNCING NEW MEMBERS
NCATS received an overwhelming number of nominations for CTSA Program Steering Committee (SC) members last fall. After thoughtful deliberation, we are pleased to announce the following Principle Investigators (PIs) who will serve three-year terms on the CTSA Program SC: Donald Lloyd-Jones (Northwestern University), Jennifer Grandis (University of California, San Francisco), George Mashour (University of Michigan), Tim Murphy (State University of New York, Buffalo), Reza Shaker (Medical College of Wisconsin), Joel Tsevat (KL2 Representative: University of Cincinnati), Susan Smyth (TL1 Representative: University of Kentucky), and Dan Ford (Trial Innovation Network Representative: Johns Hopkins University).

A full list of CTSA Program SC members can be found here.
NCATS would like to thank outgoing SC members Becky Jackson (Ohio State University) and Julian Solway (Universityof Chicago) for their service, with a special thank you to our outgoing SC co-chair Alan Green (Dartmouth College). Both the new and outgoing SC members attended an onboarding and orientation call on Jan. 9, 2017, where their roles and responsibilities in the pods and Domain Task Forces were discussed.

UPDATED PODS
Assignments to the CTSA Program pods have been updated to reflect the new SC membership, and each pod has been notified of the changes. A full list of pods can be found here.

DOMAIN TASK FORCE CO-CHAIR APPOINTEES
NCATS is pleased to announce new SC Domain Task Force (DTF) Co-Chairs Joel Tsevat (University of Cincinnati) for the Collaboration/Engagement DTF and Susan Smyth (University of Kentucky) for the Workforce Development DTF.

Questions? Contact Samantha Jonson. CTSA PROGRAM MEETING

SEEKING GRAND OPPORTUNITIES
The theme of the Spring 2017 CTSA Program Meeting in Washington, D.C. on April 18, 2017, is, “Uncovering Grand Opportunities in Translational Science.”

The goal of the Spring 2017 CTSA Program Meeting is to engage the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program community in uncovering grand opportunities in clinical and translational science. The meeting will provide attendees with a facilitated and structured opportunity designed to (1) deepen shared understanding of current challenges in clinical and translational science, and to (2) stimulate collective brainstorming to identify grand opportunities in clinical and translational science.

The meeting will provide ample opportunities for interaction and generation of innovative and grand ideas across the consortium from all meeting participants. Ideas will be solicited ahead of time about grand opportunities for significantly advancing clinical and translational science. The Program Planning Committee will select multiple ideas submitted by you, the CTSA Program community, as the topics for discussion during the breakout sessions.

We encourage you to think BOLDLY and submit your ideas through Vanderbilt Survey Multiple entries are encouraged from our CTSA Program hub stakeholders and we hope you disseminate this request widely!

Registration for the Spring 2017 CTSA Program Meeting closes April 10, 2017. Register Now
Questions? Contact Amit Chaudhari

Collaborative Learning Sessions are held on a monthly basis and feature topics of interest and hub presentations of best or promising practices in metric collection, RBA application, and Scorecard use. Recordings, slide copies and other resources from these sessions are posted to the project resource website. The next session will be held on Tuesday Feb. 14, 2017 at 3:00 pm ET. Registration for the next session can be found here.

Questions? Contact Jacob Silberstein.

NOTICE TO GUIDE: ADJUSTMENT TO STIPEND LEVELS FOR POSTDOCTROAL TRAINEES AND FELLOWS ON RUTH L. KIRSCHSTEIN NATIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE AWARD (NRSA)
The purpose of NOT-OD-17-002 is to announce the process by which recipients of Kirschstein-NRSA institutional training grant and individual fellowship awards supporting currently active postdoctoral trainees or fellows who have 0, 1, or 2 years of experience as of Dec. 1, 2016, will received increased stipends. The Notice also provides instructions for requesting one-time supplemental funding to cover the stipend increase.

Questions? Contact Division of Grants Policy or call (301) 435-0938.

BEST PRACTICES SOCIAL/BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH E-LEARNING COURSE FOR GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICE TRAINING
Recognizing a critical gap in Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training for behavioral clinical trialists, the NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program developed behavioral trials-oriented GCP materials that are now available for download on the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBBSR) website.

In September 2016, the NIH issued a policy on Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training, which requires that all investigators involved in clinical trials receive GCP training in clinical trials, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Many universities and other entities have made online GCP training available, but none are tailored for behavioral clinical trialists. The goal of this e-learning course is to enable learners to apply GCP principles, as they relate to social and behavioral research, to clinical research investigations involving human subjects.

The Social and Behavioral Research (SBR) e-learning course is composed of nine video course modules. These modules are specifically developed to run in a Learning Management System (LMS) and cannot not be viewed or used on an individual computer without first accessing them through an LMS, which is typically centrally managed at an institution. Certificates of completion of the nine modules would be obtained through an institution’s LMS.

Questions? See the instructions for downloading and uploading the modules to an institution’s LMS. Or contact your institution’s Learning Management System Information Technology (IT) or general IT group in order to upload and add these files to your institution’s LMS.

BIG DATA TO KNOWLEDGE (BD2K) GUIDE TO THE FUNDAMENTALS OF DATA SCIENCE
The NIH Big Data to Knowledge program is pleased to announce the spring semester of the BD2K Guide to the Fundamentals of Data Science, a series of online lectures given by experts from across the country covering a range of diverse topics in data science. This course is an introductory overview that assumes no prior knowledge or understanding of data science.

The series will run through May 2017, meeting every Friday at 12-1 p.m. ET/9-10 a.m. PT. No registration is required. To join the lecture, visit http://www.bigdatau.org/data-science-seminars. Seminars will also be archived on BD2K’s YouTube channel.

Event: CTSA Program Steering Committee Webinar
Date: 2/13, 3/13, 4/10, 5/8, 6/12… /2017 – Second Monday of the month; 2:30 – 4 p.m. ET
Location: Webinar

Event: CTSA Program PI Webinar
Date:1/25, 2/22, 3/22, 4/26, 5/24, 6/28… /2017 – Fourth Wednesday of the month; 2–3 pm ET
Location: Webinar

Event: Spring 2017 CTSA Program Meeting
Date: 4/18/2017 8am to 5pm ET
Location: Omni Shoreham Hotel, Wash., D.C.