The terms translational research and translational science have been used interchangeably for more than a decade, but that’s changing across Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA)-funded institutions, including TRI.
Driving the transformation is the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), which funds the CTSA program. Beginning in July of 2024, TRI supported awardees and trainees will need to explain how their research addresses both translational research and translational science. Translational research addresses overcoming a barrier to propel a specific research project forward to develop new treatments or treatment approaches for patients. Translational science takes a step back from the specific research project to ask broader questions such as a) how can the research approach support future research projects or be used by other researchers? or b) how can barriers to research be mitigated to support the broader research community and to support future research? Barriers may be scientific or administrative.
Translational science is the “science of translational research,” said TRI Director Laura James, M.D. The ultimate goal of translational science is to identify “best practice approaches” for translational research that have broad application for numerous researchers and research disciplines. One recent example of translational science is the wide-scale use of electronic health records to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on specific patient groups. NCATS created the NC3 data enclave – a national data infrastructure based on electronic health records from over 75 institutions – to better understand COVID-19.
A recorded video presentation on the topic is now available. The video is a condensed version of a recent TRI seminar led by J. Rob Singleton, M.D., director of the University of Utah’s Clinical Research Unit at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.