Requesting a Letter of Support and Boilerplate Text Grants | UC Davis CTSC

The CTSC is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) through federal grants (UL1 TR001860, KL2 TR001859, TL1 TR001861). The CTSC provides key services to UC Davis investigators, trainees, and staff to facilitate clinical and translational research. Investigators who wish to include CTSC services and programs in their grant applications may use the descriptive language provided below.

It is important to ensure that the costs of any proposed CTSC services included in letters of support and included in a grant application are determined in advance.

The best way to obtain information for budgets and budget justifications is to request a consultation with the desired program manager directly by submitting a service request. For general inquiries or requests for guidance, contact our concierge.

UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center

In 2006, the UC Davis CTSC was one of the inaugural 12 centers established across the United States in the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program initially supported by the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) that later transitioned to the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS). The grant funded in 2006, renewed in 2011, 2016, and again in 2021. Currently, in its fourth 5-year award period, the Clinical and Translational Science Center is one of more than 50 NIH-supported centers funded to facilitate and accelerate the study of human health and disease to bring new treatments to patients and communities through biomedical research. The CTSC is located on the UC Davis Health campus in Sacramento, California and draws upon talent and leadership from departments and divisions across the Davis and Sacramento campuses as well as community partners in the region.

The CTSC serves as a catalyst to support biomedical research projects by providing services and resources to investigators, staff, scholars and trainees, and community partners. As an honest and resourceful broker, the CTSC partners with UC Davis schools and colleges engaged in life science and translational research to support collaborative projects with the potential to improve health care. The CTSC provides a centralized resource dedicated to facilitating biomedical research through innovation, collaboration, and expertise. Specifically, the CTSC: (1) serves as a hub for clinical and translational research resources, (2) expands and refines a collaborative and innovative training and education environment, (3) integrates community partners into the translational research enterprise, (4) leverages crosscutting research resources, and (5) functions as a catalyst across the translational research spectrum.

Through its various programs and resources, the UC Davis CTSC provides the essential infrastructure for building research teams of the future in order to improve human health.

Biomedical Informatics

The Biomedical Informatics program provides broad access to clinical and translational informatics tools, data resources, training, and expertise in supporting and expanding the capabilities of the research community for securely designing and analyzing clinical and integrative data-driven research. Biomedical Informatics supports both institutional and cross-institutional resources, and provides individual investigators and study teams with tools and consultation that empower their ability to successfully initiate and undertake research projects throughout all stages of the translational science research cycle. Informatics expertise facilitates essential partnerships across UC Davis that share common needs for data access, data management, and training. The program partners with emerging research initiatives to advance data-driven precision medicine, population health, and technology enabled medicine. Note: View REDCap boilerplate text.

Biorepositories Core Resource

Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design

The Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design program strengthens research plans through study design, analysis, and consultation. Expertise is available to assist in the development of protocols, statistical plans, data safety monitoring plans, data analysis, and contribute to the statistical sections of grant applications, abstracts, and manuscripts.

The program supports clinical and translational research design through training, collaboration, service, and discovery in biostatistics, research design, and epidemiology, and a strong outreach and partnering function to support interdisciplinary approaches to clinical and translational research.

Clinical Research Center

The CTSC Clinical Research Center (CCRC) is located on the UC Davis Health campus in Sacramento, California. This 3,500-square foot outpatient clinic provides flexible, carefully monitored clinical resources necessary for patient-oriented research focusing on human health and/or disease. Resources include unique equipment and protocol administration tools, as well as highly experienced staff trained in human subjects' protection, good clinical practices, protocol implementation, and compliance, thus ensuring the quality of data collected and the integrity of the research.

The facility has four infusion chairs, a hospital bed, a procedure room, two general exam rooms, two private interview/testing rooms, two phlebotomy stations, an exercise physiology laboratory with a DEXA machine to measure body composition, and a specimen processing room. The clinic provides expert research personnel trained to implement protocol-specific activities and collect data in accordance with the protocol and all applicable local, state, and national regulatory requirements. Skilled clinical research nurses provide direct nursing care for all subjects enrolled in research studies. The nurses ensure patient safety and protocol fidelity, and are certified in chemotherapy administration, moderate sedation, and ACLS/PALS. A nurse practitioner is available to provide expanded services to investigators. Certified laboratory staff support investigators with sample collection; simple/complex sample processing; DNA/RNA isolation; preparation of samples for proteomics analysis and flow cytometry; and multiplex cytokine/chemokine and metabolic analyses. A master’s level exercise physiologist performs metabolic, exercise, and spirometry testing, body composition/bone density measurements, and provides data analysis for investigators.

Clinical Research Ethics

The clinical research ethics resource provides expertise to researchers seeking advice regarding ethically complex aspects of their biomedical research. The service is available to assist investigators throughout the life of a research project, from the initial design phase of the study through dissemination of research findings. This resource demonstrates a commitment to safety and a high degree of research ethics at the institutional level and supports training of students in graduate and professional training programs, along with regularly-scheduled seminars on the ethical conduct of research.

Clinical Trials Office

The Clinical Trials Office assists investigators, scholars, and staff in the conduct of clinical research by providing education in regulatory and clinical research administration, help with study recruitment, and a vast array of static and interactive resources to guide investigational teams through the myriad of local, state, and federal requirements. By supporting investigators with IRB and FDA applications, research budgeting and billing, and cost analysis, the CTSC facilitates efficient compliant clinical research at UC Davis. Additionally, the group provides investigators with access to a highly trained staff of clinical research coordinators who are experienced and trained in the complex clinical research environment and can help monitor, mentor, and foster quality assurance through all phases of a clinical research protocol.

Community Engagement

The Community Engagement program is a well-established resource linking investigators and community partners to implement the mission of building capacity and infrastructure for clinical and translational research among investigators, patients, health care providers, policymakers, and community-based organizations. The program leverages institutional centers and resources focused on community and stakeholder partnerships. This resource can help researchers forge relationships with community partners, California health agencies, and elected officials around health and health care issues through collaborations. The Research and Education Community Advisory Board supports health-related communication and partnerships and bridges researchers with underserved communities. The Community Review Board provides a specialized consultation session for health researchers developing community- or patient-centered research proposals.

Health Equity Resources and Outreach

The Health Equity Resources and Outreach (HERO) program works to amplify the voices and grow the presence of patients and the public in all aspects of health research, across the full translational science spectrum. HERO's work is shaped by the principle that science is a team endeavor, and the best science is done in teams whose members represent a true diversity of knowledge, expertise, perspectives, and lived experiences as well as the diverse sociocultural backgrounds of team members and the communities impacted by their work.

To support effective public participation in the design, implementation, and communication of health research, HERO evaluates and disseminates tools and resources, offers consultations and trainings, and organizes activities designed to facilitate and build capacity for effective dialogue and collaboration between professional researchers and the public. As a newer CTSC program, HERO is actively building the infrastructure to support its mission, in the form of advisory bodies, partnerships with community-based organizations, and relationships across the institution. We focus on involving populations underrepresented in scientific studies, especially people at those stages in the human life course less commonly present in research, namely children, adolescents, and older adults, along with residents of rural communities and people affected by rare diseases.

HERO is the programmatic home of several sub-components of the CTSC’s NIH grant with a shared focus on health equity: Integrating Special Populations into Research (INSPIRE); Adolescent and Young Adult Recruitment and Retention (AYA) and Health Equity Resources.

Pilot Awards

The CTSC sparks innovative and collaborative scientific endeavors by supporting and facilitating robust new research paradigms, technologies, and tools, and through partnerships that enhance team science. The CTSC circulates calls throughout the campus community for applications on targeted topics to maximize and leverage opportunities throughout UC Davis including other centers and programs.

Translational Research Education and Development

The Translational Research Education and Development program is committed to developing the next generation of independent, highly successful academic faculty and advancing the UC Davis Schools of Health. This includes efforts to reorient the culture of the institution to support promotion through team science participation and enhance quality mentoring in the human health sciences. By administering KL2 and TL1 grants and other education and training programs, the CTSC supports research education and training on the institutional level.

The Mentoring Academy for Research Excellence (MARE), a mentoring program offered by Translational Research Education and Development, focuses on disseminating mentoring best practices for faculty and mentees in the health sciences by providing a wide array of resources to help mentees and mentors develop and sustain successful mentoring relationships to develop the next generation of independent, highly successful researchers. This includes workshops for mentees and mentors, career development plans and other resources to foster an environment that values and supports mentoring and inclusivity in research and career progression.

The CTSC hosts a wealth of opportunities for workforce training and education for pre- and post-doctoral personnel involved in translational research. A comprehensive approach to translational research training offers scholars a rich array of career development opportunities through program curricula, mentored research training, and partnerships with other programs, departments, and institutions. Scholars include clinical and translational researchers at multiple career stages — graduate, medical and veterinary students, postdoctoral and clinical fellows, and junior faculty — and represent numerous departments, disciplines, graduate groups, schools, and colleges throughout UC Davis. The diversity exemplified by the research interests, career stages, and skill sets of the scholars creates a natural environment for the genesis of novel research ideas, interdisciplinary collaborations, and unique approaches to advancing health. This robust resource integrates workforce-training innovations and empowers research teams to address health care needs in the 21^st century.

Translational Technologies, Methodologies, and Resources

The CTSC supports collaborative scientific endeavors by serving to facilitate robust new research paradigms, technologies, and tools, and through partnerships that enhance team science. By facilitating and supporting clinical and translational research teams to speed discovery critical to advance science and health care needs in the 21^st century, the CTSC encourages translational endeavors through pilot awards, partnerships, and linking researchers with available facilities, cores, and resources.