Child Health Oversight Committee: Forum for CTSA investigators and NIH scientists to identify collaborative opportunities to facilitate pediatric clinical and translational research through the CTSA program
Clinical Research: Research conducted with human subjects (or on material of human origin such as tissues, specimens and cognitive phenomena) for which an investigator (or colleague) directly interacts with human subjects; excluded from this definition are in vitro studies that utilize human tissues that cannot be linked to a living individual. Patient-oriented research includes: mechanisms of human disease, therapeutic interventions, clinical trials, development of new technologies, epidemiologic and behavioral studies or outcomes and health services research
Collaborative Research: Continuum of shared research resources ranging from investigator teams, pooled expertise, shared capabilities, technologies and databases, leveraging of institutional resources within and between institutions
Consortium: An agreement, combination, or fellowship formed to undertake an enterprise beyond the resources of any one member
Cooperative Agreement: An administrative and funding instrument used for the CTSA program, an "assistance" mechanism (rather than an "acquisition" mechanism), in which substantial NIH programmatic involvement with the awardees is anticipated during the performance of the activities; the Principal Investigator(s) retain the primary responsibility and dominant role for planning, directing, and executing the proposed project, with NIH staff being substantially involved as a partner with the Principal Investigator
CTSA Consortium Executive Committee (CCEC): Member-elected subgroup of the CTSA Consortium Steering Committee comprising CTSA members and NIH staff advisors, to take timely action on emergent CCSC issues
CTSA Consortium Steering Committee (CCSC): Comprises PIs of each CTSA and NIH representatives; core governing and decision-making body for the CTSA consortium
Demographics: Population (trainee, mentor, research participant, public) characteristics that include age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, location of residence or location of academic appointment, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, employment or tenure status
Discipline: Field of study defined by shared theories, accepted methods, preferred conceptualizations and values; monodisciplinary research is restricted to one research discipline and to one branch or specialization within a research field; people working within one discipline study the same research objects, share the same paradigm, use common methodologies, and speak the same "language"
Generations of CTSA Grantees: CTSA awardees funded during the first and the subsequent annual funding cycles of the CTSA program
IC: NIH Institutes and Centers
Interdisciplinarity: Cooperation of members from different disciplines to work jointly from each disciplinary perspective, removing disciplinary barriers to address questions of mutual interest to participants
Investigators: Researchers who observe or study by close examination and systematic inquiry
Key Function Committees: Consortium-wide forums for communication and sharing best practices across areas of clinical and translational research including Clinical Research Ethics, Participant and Clinical Interaction Resources, Communications, and Biostatistics/Epidemiology/Research Design, and others as established
Mentors: Accomplished investigators in a research area with a track record of success, having trained individuals in postdoctoral positions who then have gone on to become independent investigators
Monodisciplinarity: Restricted to one research discipline and to one branch or specialization within a research field ; investigators working within one discipline study the same research objects, share the same paradigm, use common methodologies, and speak the same "language"
Multidisciplinarity: Forming coordinated environments and/or team(s) with members from multiple disciplines to work independently or sequentially to address questions of both mutual and separate interest to participating members
NARRC: National Advisory Research Resources Council providing input, advice and guidance to the NCRR Director
NCRR: National Center for Research Resources, NIH
NCRR Program Officials: NCRR scientific staff responsible for the programmatic stewardship of a CTSA award
NCRR Project Scientists: NCRR scientific staff responsible for the scientific coordination of a CTSA award
Networks: Social structures that bring together a broad selection of professionals and resources that complement and enhance each other's endeavors; nodes are the individual actors in the networks, and ties are the various relationships between the actors
NIH Staff Advisors: NIH representatives to the CTSA program who provide technical assistance, advice and coordination through Steering and Oversight Committees, Subcommittees and other workgroups, beyond normal grant stewardship
NIH IC Directors Advisory Board: Five IC Directors, one of whom is chair, and two Office of Portfolio Analysis and Strategic Initiatives (OPASI) representatives, ex officio, who provide advice to the NCRR Director on the CTSA consortium
Return on Investment: Impact of invested time, resources and funding on speed, efficiency and effectiveness of translation of research throughout the clinical and translational research continuum and resulting improvements in health
NIH Roadmap for Medical Research: NIH blueprint for building the medical research enterprise of tomorrow with initiatives focused in three main areas: new pathways to discovery, research teams of the future, and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise
Strategic Goal Committees (SGC): Comprise three PIs and three members of the Administration Committee; responsible for the achievement of each Strategic Goal identified by the CCSC in coordination with appropriate Key Function Committees
Transdisciplinarity: Integrating or blending knowledge and techniques from different disciplines to address questions of mutual interest beyond the purview of individual disciplines; a form of interdisciplinarity in which boundaries between and beyond disciplines are transcended and knowledge and perspectives from different scientific disciplines are integrated
Translational continuum: Spans, bi-directionally, basic science discovery, early translation into Phase I/II trials, late translation into Phase III/IV trials and regulatory approval, health services research, dissemination to providers and communities, and adoption by providers, patients and the public
Translational Research: Transforms scientific discoveries arising from laboratory, clinical or population studies into clinical applications to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve population health
