Postdoc Symposium chemistry student in lab Slide 3 Slide 1

Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research

A primary aim of the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR) is to foster development of innovative clinical and translational research opportunities. One major impediment to T1 and T2 translation is the difficulty to expeditiously determine whether a scientific idea is of real merit. The generation of preliminary data and pilot initiatives for clinical and translational studies is fundamental to addressing such an impediment, although the additional barrier exists in that pilot funds are not always efficiently available. Demonstrating the merit of a proposed study in concept has proved to be a particularly burdensome challenge for new or junior investigators. Stimulating pilot work and considering its outcomes, which guide research programs in the most promising direction, remains a core function and mission of VICTR. The VICTR pilot funding program already in place supports clinical and translational pilot and feasibility studies for projects that involve human tissue, human information (e.g., medical records), and/or application to human health. VICTR ‘s Scientific Review Committee (SRC) is charged with overseeing and administrating all funding requests. All VICTR request proposals are now accepted through the StarBRITE portal which has resulted in a consistent and organized intake of requests.

Specifically, the following infrastructure and activities are fully operational and can be leveraged to support other pilot programs such as:

  • The application: All VICTR request proposals of any monetary level are accepted through StarBRITE. Information required and levels of review are commensurate with the amount of funding requested.. Templates of required supporting documents are provided in application instructions, and completed documents can be uploaded within the online application prior to submission. The online application process has evolved into a convenient and streamlined process for the investigator.
  • The committee: The VICTR SRC is composed of a diverse cross-section of experts who are investigators and understand the VICTR mission.  Members of the Committee are selected exclusively based on their scientific credentials (spanning T1 through T2 expertise) and are responsible for judging scientific merit. The objective of the Committee is to provide a thorough, consistent and comprehensive scientific review addressing specific criteria in order to judge the likelihood that the proposed research will have a substantial impact on the pursuit of these goals. The SRC meets regularly, every first and third Wednesday of the month. VICTR funding is available on a rolling basis with applications for both T1 and T2 pilot and feasibility proposals being accepted at any time.
  • The review: All resource requests undergo an extensive pre-review process (as appropriate: biostatistics, informatics, budgetary, administration, bio-nutrition, research subject advocate, core laboratory, community impact, and nursing) prior to being presented before the entire SRC. The SRC pre-review is facilitated and streamlined through active communication between the SRC support staff and the investigator to ensure all pre-review comments have been addressed, budget requests are appropriate and accurate, applications are complete and supplemental information is in order prior to SRC presentation. A thorough pre-review that subscribes to an ‘attention to detail’ policy, permits the SRC to focus on the scientific merit of each proposal and consider more requests per meeting thus expediting the proposal’s review process. The SRC reviews projects for significance, approach, innovation, investigators, environment and relevance to the goals of VICTR (e.g. does the project promote the training/career of a young investigator, provide preliminary data for an important grant submission, likely to result in a publication, improve the translational infrastructure or enhance community health?)  Protocols in need of improvement are referred for a Studio to assist investigators in producing higher quality research. All feasible projects receive a priority score used in funding decisions.
  • Award tracking: Through the StarBRITE portal, we will process requests for this additional pilot funding. Awarded projects will be tracked through a centralized office that interacts with several institutional databases to ensure funds are spent according to that which is described in the approved protocol and meet all other governmental regulations and requirements.  We will optimize this existing resource and data capture mechanism to review relevant processes and outcome metrics of these new pilot initiatives.
  • Measurement: We track and monitor outcomes of pilot proposals. All metrics are be available in real-time to the SRC, the Executive Committee and other personnel through the StarBRITE Dashboards.
  • Technology: StarBRITE uses object-oriented PHP and Ajax for the front-end interface and a relational Oracle database for the back-end. Zend Framework and the ExtJS JavaScirpt library are used extensively to facilitate consistent and rapid development. Code and data reside on secured web and database servers within the Vanderbilt Data Center.

StarBRITE is an interactive web-based system that provides one-stop shopping for research needs. Content is organized around tasks and resources needed by research teams in the planning and conduct of scientific studies.  StarBRITE was launched in October 2007 as part of the Vanderbilt CTSA initiative and contains traditional portal offerings (ex. template language and links to support research planning and implementation; integrated calendar of training events for researchers), as well as custom applications to support the research enterprise.  To date, StarBRITE has received more than 400,000 hits from more than 5,000 users. As it relates to pilot funding, VICTR has launched an improved resource request within StarBRITE with a “pick-list” of resources that will automatically build a resource request budget and that eventually will tie to the Vanderbilt CTSA accounting system.