About UMB ICTR
UMB ICTR, the First Universitywide Interdisciplinary Hub for Clinical Translational Research and Home to the UMB Collaboration with JHU ICTR in the NIH CTSA
From Dr. Stephen Davis, Director of the UMB ICTR
The goal of the ICTR is to provide access to the portfolio of exceptional quality, shared resources available across our campus, as well as ICTR pilot grant funding and ICTR clinical & translational research training and faculty career development opportunities. From the beginning, the UMB ICTR has been committed to bringing together the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing, law, social work, and pharmacy scientists and professionals to pool and leverage resources and to develop the best strategies for rapidly delivering these resources to our research community. In addition, the UMB ICTR quickly forged an alliance around clinical & translational science with the JHU ICTR and, in doing so, this partnership was awarded the prestigious NIH NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) in 2018, adding to the portfolio of rich resources and opportunities.
Since inception in December 2017 through September 2024, the UMB ICTR has awarded over 17,000 hours of free services and nearly $5.4 million in micro-grant and pilot grant funding to support over 1,300 research project proposals/projects. During this time, this support led to 346 extramural grant applications with over 134 of those applications being awarded over $166 million in funding. In addition, in line with the UMB ICTR and the NIH NCATS mission to ensure that the translational science workforce is equipped with the skills and training to advance technologies and therapies to improve public health, the UMB ICTR has awarded 15 faculty career development awards, 10 postdoctoral- and 16 predoctoral clinical translational research training awards. The UMB ICTR has also expanded its ecosystem by adding partnerships with UMMS, UMCP, and UMBC to increase and broaden the opportunities for shared expertise, data, and other resources, such as AI and machine learning, all aimed to accelerate clinical translational science to improve patient and community health.
The strength and promise of these partnerships were noted by reviewers in the most recent CTSA competition, where the UMB ICTR-JHU ICTR partnership competed against the most prestigious academic centers across the nation. Once again, the UMB ICTR-JHU ICTR partnership was awarded the NIH NCATS CTSA, this time for seven years beginning in 2024. This could not have happened without the incredible collaborative efforts and enthusiasm of leadership across all the professional schools and the support staff dedicated in delivering to the research community every resource needed to improve the health of Marylanders, not just today, but for their future.
Welcome to the UMB ICTR.
Sincerely,
Stephen N. Davis, MBBS, FRCP, FACE, MACP
UMB ICTR Director and Co-PI CTSA
Primary Goals and Focus of the UMB ICTR
- Provide a seamless integrated infrastructure to drive the entire spectrum (T0-T4) of clinical and translational research bidirectionally from molecules to communities.
- Promote innovation in clinical and translational research by stimulating multi- and interdisciplinary team science directed at the translation of basic discovery to human studies and product development as we engage other academic hubs and industry.
- Educate and train generations of multidisciplinary clinical and translational scientists by providing education for trainees at all levels and backgrounds, including students in medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, social work, law, and graduate studies; residents, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty focused on preventing the health burden of acute and chronic diseases across the lifespan.
- To provide a forum for bidirectional conversations with communities, networks, and practitioners outside academia to identify needs, synthesize emerging data supporting new health interventions, and systematically examine ways in which evidence-based interventions are integrated into best practices in community settings, including schools, clinical practice, and health systems to reduce disparities in health outcomes.
To Achieve these Goals, the UMB ICTR will Focus on:
- Integrating existing and developing new resources, infrastructure, and partnerships to provide an environment that enables innovation and synergy among interdisciplinary research teams and networks
- Providing ICTR Core resources, including expert support staff, and financial support to clinical translational researchers to allow progress on the "scientific next steps"
- Training and mentoring the next generation of diverse clinical translational scientists
- Building and strengthening partnerships throughout the community — including the urban and rural underserved — through trust and respect for mutual benefit and engaging the community in identifying and prioritizing research needs
Achieving these goals will have a major impact on the health of patients and diverse communities including rural and urban underserved populations in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Mid-Atlantic region.
Explore UMB ICTR resources on this website and reach out to the ICTR Navigator to learn more.