UC Davis CTSA: Coming of Age

Abstract

T he National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program has profoundly impacted clinical research and training at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). UC Davis was among the fi rst 12 institutions to receive this award and created its Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) in 2006. Th e funding accelerated and further integrated an existing conscientious and careful planning eff ort for translational research with a stepwise approach to gradually increase our institutional competencies, capabilities, and resources in this area. Establishing our CTSC has led us to develop new ways of bringing together a diverse faculty and facilitating research and has created an integrated academic home for clinical and translational science with the resources and infrastructure to train and advance multiand interdisciplinary investigators and research teams. In this article, we highlight the development of 2 of our CTSC programs, Participant and Clinical Interactions Resources (PCIR) and Pilot and Collaborative Studies. We view these programs as outstanding opportunities to engage a wide spectrum of faculty both in the transition of the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) to a CTSC and to educate faculty and trainees about the many opportunities that an NIH-supported CTSC can provide to our partners and research community.