Collaborating

Three CTSA institutions collaborate to multi-site study IRB process better

Case Western Reserve University, University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University have created a collaborative agreement that will allow a single institutions Institutional Review Board (IRB) to assume IRB responsibility for a study when multiple institutions are collaborating. It is hoped that this agreement and others like it "will serve to accelerate research by streamlining human subject protection processes" in multi-center studies.
(posted 6/20/2012)

AAMC article 'Partnerships with Industry: Rethinking the Basics'

A new article published by the Association of American Medical Colleges examines new ideas concerning the partnerships between academic medicine and industry.
(posted 6/20/2012)

'Rebranding NIH' story in Congressional Quarterly

A recent issue of Congressional Quarterly featured a cover story on the re-branding of the NIH. The story describes how NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins is portraying the organization as not only a primary weapon in the war against disease, but also an engine to drive job growth and the creation of new products.
(posted 6/20/2012)

New NIH/Pharma Industry collaboration to provide researchers access to compounds

The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has partnered with a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, to match researchers with pharma industry compounds, helping those researchers to explore new treatments for patients. According to the NIH, 'The pilot program incorporates innovative template agreements designed to streamline the legal and administrative process.' More information on this program can be found at the NIH website.
(posted 5/17/2012)

Collaboration in Research Labs article

The Houston Chronicle ran a recent column on the collaboration, communication and social networking that occurs in a research laboratory and how these tools and techniques contribute to lab team success.
(posted 5/8/2012)

iCollaborative from AAMC

The iCollaborative is a new, centralized online resource provided by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Free and open for discussion, the iCollaborative offers academic medical institutions a unique opportunity to discuss and to contribute the best resources for transforming health care delivery.
The iCollaborative is cross-referenced with other AAMC resources such as MedEdPORTAL, the free online educational repository that covers both medicine and dentistry and Academic Medicine, the peer-reviewed journal of the AAMC.
(posted 12/13/2011)

Stanford's CAP Network

The Stanford University School of Medicine's Office of Information Resources & Technology is launching a private, internal social-networking service, called CAP Network, that could dramatically alter communication among faculty, students, postdoctoral scholars and staff like the changes wrought on a much larger scale by Facebook and LinkedIn.
(posted 12/13/2011)

Related Readings

A Virtual National Laboratory for Reengineering Clinical Translational Science

An article, published in Science Translational Medicine in January 2012, talks about how a virtual laboratory could be used to improve clinical research.

Engaging Basic Scientists in Translational Research

UPDATE: FASEB has released a report, "Engaging Basic Scientists in Translational Research: Identifying Opportunities, Overcoming Obstacles," covering the previously mentioned symposium.

On March 24-25, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) brought together leaders of the scientific community for a two-day symposium to explore ways to engage basic scientists in translational research. Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the NIH, delivered the opening address, discussing the barriers to translating fundamental knowledge into new drugs and devices, the critical contributions that basic investigators make to translation research, and the role that NIH, particularly through the proposed National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, will play in promoting the development of novel diagnostics and therapeutics. FASEB's steering committee that organized the meeting is now focused on developing a white paper describing the major recommendations that emerged from the meeting. The text (PDF format) can be viewed here.

Sunset of the Solo Scientist

Feb 5, 2011 - In recent weeks, President Barack Obama has focused on the importance of innovation for "winning the future." It's our new ideas, he says, that will solve our energy problems, increase exports and create high-paying jobs. "This is our generation's Sputnik moment," he said in the State of the Union speech. "We need to out-innovate the world." Read more...

AAMC

Challenges and Opportunities for New Collaborative Science Models: Report from the AAMC Task Force on Information Technology Infrastructure Requirements for Cross-Institutional Research. The full article can be found here.

Microsoft Research

The Research Information Centre (RIC) is a virtual research environment framework being jointly developed by Microsoft External Research and The British Library. We view researchers as extreme information workers and the purpose of the RIC is to support researchers in managing the increasingly complex range of tasks involved in carrying out research.