In This Week’s Update:

COVID-19 Updates:
- RADx-UP Phase II Funding
- Funding for Continued COVID Research
UR CTSI Incubator Leads to NEW Brain Aging Center
URMC Health Research Volunteer Registry Now in Spanish
EQ-DI Webinar: Intervention Failure? Maybe it's Fidelity.
Data Science to Power Implementation with Social Determinants of Health
Empowering Effective Multi-Center Research Collaborations
Satcher Awards and Special Grand Rounds
Life Course Research Toolkit
CLIC Career Development Community
Improving Representation in Clinical Research
Funding Opportunities

COVID-19 Updates:

Funding for RADx-UP Phase II: COVID Testing in Underserved Populations
The NIH is seeking competitive revision applications for Phase II of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics – Underserved Populations (RADxSM-UP) initiative. These two-year projects will (1) expand the scope and reach of RADxSM-UP COVID testing to reduce disparities among underserved populations and (2) address scientific questions on interventions to increase access and uptake of COVID testing given the increasing availability of COVId vaccines. Apply by Tuesday, May 25.

Funding for Continued Research on COVID-19
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is seeking competitive revision and administrative supplement applications for continued research on the impacts of SARS-CoV-2, and especially on the risks and outcomes for COVID-19 infection in individuals suffering from substance use disorders. Applications accepted on a rolling basis through March 31, 2022.

UR CTSI Incubator Leads to NEW Brain Aging Center at URMC

With $2.5 million from the National Institute on Aging, URMC researchers recently launched the Network for Emotional Well-Being (NEW) Brain Aging Research Center to study how the aging brain impacts emotional well-being – and vice versa. Feng Vankee Lin, Ph.D., R.N., lead investigator of the new center credits a 2017 UR CTSI Incubator grant for helping lay the foundation for the center. Read more in the UR CTSI Stories Blog.

URMC Health Research Volunteer Registry Now in Spanish

Good news for our Spanish-speaking community members and researchers who would like to recruit them into health research studies: The URMC Health Research Volunteer Registry is now available in Spanish. Thanks to the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, you can now click the “Traducir” button at the top of the page to view the registry in Spanish.

EQ-DI Webinar: Intervention Failure? Maybe it's Fidelity.

New therapies and interventions can seem promising in the tightly controlled environment of the lab or clinical trials but can lose their luster in real-world settings. Wendi Cross, Ph.D., professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at URMC, will argue that the issue arises because interventions aren't always implemented as intended (i.e. with fidelity) at the second UR CTSI Equity-Focused Dissemination & Implementation (EQ-DI) spring webinar. Register now and join the discussion tomorrow.
Date: Tuesday, April 27
Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Data Science to Power Implementation with Social Determinants of Health

Data Science to Power Implementation with Social Determinants of Health is the inaugural event for an upcoming conference series, Data to Action!, hosted by the Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program hubs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University. The conference will focus on data to enhance early detection and prevention efforts, and inform treatment decisions, including the acceleration of COVID vaccinations and the generation of outcomes data. Open to all stakeholders (trainees, researchers, physicians, etc.) who are interested in improving existing approaches to turning observations into interventions that improve health.
Date: Friday, April 30
Time: 8:15 am – 4:00 pm

Team Science: Empowering Effective Multi-Center Research Collaborations

Hosted by the Trial Innovation Network (TIN), this team science presentation will:

Define team science and differentiate team science research from more traditional forms
Identify how team science is promoted by the NIH
Explain the benefits and shortcomings of team science research
Describe the risks associated with team science models and how to overcome them
Describe real-world examples of how team science research has been integrated in the past within the TIN
List and define the key steps in developing a team science framework for a research proposal

Date: Monday, May 3
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Satcher Community Health Improvement Awards & Special Grand Rounds

At this year's Special Grand Rounds, Eugenia C. South, M.D. MSPH, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and vice chair of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will present Making Black lives matter through investment in Black neighborhoods. South will review the root causes of urban gun violence including structural racism, and will review several place-based interventions from her research that prevent gun crime and promote community health. South's presentation will be followed by presentations from this year's Dr. David Satcher Community Health Improvment awardees.
Date: Thursday, May 6
Time: 1:00 – 2:30 pm

Life-Course Research Toolkit

Life-course research embraces the complexity of health and disease development, tackling the extensive interactions between genetics and the environment over a lifetime. A Life-Course Research Visual Toolkit is now available to anyone interested in learning about innovative life course research methods. The toolkit includes six full-length webinars and shorter video cuts ranging from broad overviews to ‘How To’ videos. (Note: the toolkit is hosted on YouTube and may not be accessible while on VPN.)

CLIC Career Development Community

Collaborate, network and share ideas with your peers in the Career Development Community hosted by the Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration. This interactive space is split into three focus areas for KL2 scholars, TL1 trainees and clinical research professionals. Each focus area includes a message board, community content feed and searchable community member list to foster communication across the consortium.

Improving Representation of Women and Underrepresented Groups in Clinical Trials

Participants of clinical trials and clinical research often do not represent the demographic diversity of the populations that the interventions tested in the trials aim to serve. This workshop reviews the challenges and barriers to having full representation and inclusion in clinical trials and clinical research from stakeholder groups that provide oversight and funding for this work. It will also explore novel approaches and strategies for addressing and overcoming these challenges. View the workshop.