RESOURCES
CTSI Consulting Services
In addition to the services listed here, vist the CTSI website for more resources for conducting research.
CTSI BREAD Program. The Biostatistics, Research Ethics And Design (BREAD) Program services offer access to experts in the areas of:
- Study Design and Implementation: for questions about study design, sampling, recruitment, measurement, and implementation of both observational studies and clinical trials, including specific support for multicenter clinical trial design and implementation
- Data management: for questions about how to design databases and workflow to support studies, and for assistance with actual programming of a variety of database types, including Web-accessible databases
- Biostatistics: for help with sample size assessment, analysis planning, or actual analysis of existing research data
- Ethics: for complex questions on research ethics, including first-in-human studies, vulnerable populations, stem-cell and gene therapy studies.
Initial consultations are free of charge, with subsequent services provided on a recharge basis. (During the initial start-up period, all consultations are free and only data analysis service and database programming are recharged.)
CTSI RKS Program. The Regulatory Knowledge and Support (RKS) Service is available to help researchers understand and meet the many regulatory and compliance requirements in the pre-award and post-award process. RKS offers consultation and regulatory guidance in the following areas:
- Committee on Human Research (CHR)
- Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
- Radioactive Drug Safety Committee
- Biosafety Committee
- Human Stem Cell Use
- HIPAA
- Conflict of Interest (COI)
- Pharmacometric Analysis of Clinical Trials (IMPACT)
- FDA
CTSI BI Program. The Biomedical Informatics (BI) Program offers access to experts in sequence data, genomics, proteomics, microarrays, and general biological data mining. Assistance with grant development, analysis planning, or actual analysis of existing research data is proffered. Initial consultations are free of charge, with subsequent services provided on a recharge basis. (During the initial start-up period, all consultations are free and only data analysis services are recharged.)
CTSI CE Program. The Community Engagement Program provides consultation, training, and other resources to develop and support university-community research partnerships. The program works to build the capacity of UCSF and local community organizations and clinical settings to conduct community-engaged research. The program fosters linkages between researchers and the diverse San Francisco Bay Area community through three points of engagement:
- Integrated delivery systems (e.g., Kaiser Permanente and the Community Health Network of the San Francisco Department of Public Health)
- Networks of community-based clinicians
- Community members and community-based organizations
Additional Grant Preparation Resources
Grant Writing Workshops. Several times each year the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and CTST sponsor a 6-session Grant Writing Workshop open to the UCSF community free of charge. The workshop covers grant writing principles, with specific guidelines and tips for preparing successful NIH grant applications for research with human subjects – both investigator-initiated research (e.g. R01, R03, R21) and mentored career development awards (e.g. K23, K12).
Presentation materials from past CTST workshops are another useful resource for developing grant preparation skills. (UCSF access only.)
Biostatistics Grant Development Assistance Program. Some research projects benefit from significant involvement of a statistician, and naming a Biostatistics faculty member as a co-investigator may be appropriate. If an investigator anticipates they will need a faculty biostatistician's commitment of 10% time or more, free help (up to 20 hours) is available for preparation of grants that will be submitted through UCSF. Assistance can be provided in: formulating hypotheses; devising appropriate study designs; defining appropriate outcome, predictor, and confounding variables; calculating sample size and power; outlining appropriate data analysis strategies and tests; and writing or editing sections of the proposal. Request Assistance
The CTSI BREAD Program (see above) provides advice for research proposals with more limited statistical needs.
CTSI Funding Opportunities
Strategic Opportunity Support (SOS) Center. The Center will provide pilot funding for research and career development activities in clinical and translational sciences to encourage multi-disciplinary research. Mentoring resources will be provided and the Center will serve as a one-stop mechanism to identify pilot funding sources for clinical and translational research. The Center will also enhance the careers of investigators who are interested in obtaining expertise and skills required for modern clinical and translational research. Multidisciplinary clinical research programs will be fostered through opportunity funds administered by the SOS Center. In addition, the Center will encourage and support strategic innovative methodologies and technologies.
Resident Research Funding. The Resident Clinical and Translational Research Funding program is designed to provide up to $2000 per academic year to UCSF residents for qualified clinical and translational research expenses not covered by their mentor or other sources.
UCSF Infrastructure for Clinical Research
The UCSF Office of Research goals are providing high quality services to UCSF investigators, fostering new research initiatives and translating discoveries into public benefit and their website contains a host of important resources for the clinical investigator. The Office of Sponsored Research Contracts and Grants Division is a source for information on Funding Opportunities.
The School of Medicine also maintains a website that includes an array of Clinical Research Training Resources, Clinical Research Tools, and Funding Opportunities for investigators. Similar research websites are available at the Schools of Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy.
The Department of Medicine provides a PI Guide to Contracts and Grants that covers basic pre- and post-award issues and is downloadable as a PowerPoint presentation. The Guide may be found on the DOM Research Administration website. Please locate the "PI Guide to Contracts and Grant" in the right-hand bar menu.
Intramural funding that provides start-up and bridge funding for clinical and translational investigators early in their career is available from a variety of sources including REAC and the Academic Senate.
The UCSF Library is another source for information about funding opportunities, including access to The Foundation Directory Online. The Foundation Directory Online includes comprehensive information on private foundations, corporate giving programs, and grantmaking public charities. It allows you to search for grantmaking organizations, recently awarded grants, and grant related tax information. Access to this resource is available from terminals in the Parnassus, Mission Bay, and Mt. Zion libraries. It is not available remotely.
NIH Web Resources
The NIH Center for Scientific Review publishes Peer Review Notes to inform our reviewers, NIH staff and others of news related to our grant application review policies, procedures and plans.