NUCATS CTSA UM1 at Northwestern University

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Over prior funding cycles, the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute has developed and delivered a robust institutional infrastructure to support clinical and translational research. Our mature CTSA hub has made exceptional contributions to the consortium, attaining national prominence for

igniting cross-disciplinary team science and boundary-crossing partnerships. These strengths now enable NUCATS to pivot and focus on clinical and translational science (CTS). This proposal addresses three of the most urgent and fundamental priorities to accelerate and catalyze translation: (a) cultivating a culture of

inclusive excellence to better capitalize on our full range of talent and enable effective translation for diverse populations; (b) accelerating discovery and development of innovations in interventions and processes to improve efficiency of translation; and (c) infusing implementation science (IS) methods into work across the

translational continuum to increase the demand for and supply of effective health services to improve public health. NUCATS will develop, evaluate, and disseminate more effective health interventions to more patients more quickly through teamwork with our exceptional coalition of community, health system, and CTSA partners

via three Specific Aims: INCLUDE, INNOVATE, and IMPLEMENT. For our INCLUDE Aim, we will work to cultivate a culture of inclusive excellence as we expand our workforce, partnerships, and research participants, including those historically underrepresented in biomedical science, to optimize the beneficial impacts of

translation on the health of all. For our INNOVATE Aim, we will catalyze innovation across all stages of the translational continuum to promote entrepreneurship as well as the rigor and reproducibility of translational research. For our IMPLEMENT Aim, we will infuse implementation science methods into clinical research

across the translational continuum to accelerate public health impact. Each Specific Aim will be attained via a set of Strategies, which in turn consist of a set of Initiatives. Pursuit of the Specific Aims will be overseen by a highly interactive Multiple Principal Investigator (MPI) team ideally suited to provide strong oversight of the

Specific Aims, with each MPI having primary oversight of one aim. The MPIs will tightly coordinate a team- based leadership structure emphasizing integration across hub and application components, supported by Advisory Committees. This proposal is further enabled by our renowned evaluation infrastructure, our

longstanding leadership in open science principles (including Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) data) and our track record of leadership across the CTSA consortium. By the end of the proposed UM1, NUCATS will become a national champion and consortium resource for transdisciplinary research teams

seeking to continuously improve CTS performance to more efficiently deliver inclusive, innovative, and implementable solutions that improve health for all.