From Process to Progress to Priorities: NUCATS Continues to Advance Clinical and Translational Science

How do researchers move beyond ideas, turning them into concrete actions and innovations?

The answer may not always be clear, but a recent event at the NUCATS Institute identified many new avenues to tackle these challenges.

At an annual one-day retreat marking the beginning of NUCATS’ third year of UM1 funding, the focus was clear: sharing what processes are working, building upon progress already made and re-focusing these efforts toward NUCATS priorities.

Coming together at the beginning of each year has become an important annual milestone for our team — we reflect not only on the success of the past year, but also to identify where we can go next.”

Nicole Woitowich, PhD, NUCATS Executive Director

“Coming together at the beginning of each year has become an important annual milestone for our team,” says Nicole Woitowich, PhD, NUCATS executive director and research associate professor of Medical Social Sciences. “We reflect not only on the success of the past year, but also to identify where we can go next.”

Opening remarks from NUCATS multiple principal investigators Richard D’Aquila, MD, Sara Becker, PhD, and Clyde Yancy, MD, MSc set the tone for the objectives of the summit, before teams and modules worked to identify strengths and opportunities while getting feedback from their peers. The event also provided a unique chance for researchers and teams to discover overlaps in their work – and new potential collaborations.

The day was highlighted by a keynote address on turning ideas into action, providing a thought-provoking spark as NUCATS looks ahead to the next year. Paul Harris, PhD addressed the crowd with a talk entitled “Ideation =/= Innovation”: a fitting call to action for NUCATS to turn ideas and processes into new, tangible progress. Harris, creator of the REDcap data and collection management platform, shared lessons learned from REDcap’s development, emphasizing the importance of listening to users, understanding the real-world challenges they face, and designing the tangible solutions that address those needs. He also provided insights on new, artificial-intelligence-driven features for the tool – exemplifying his mantra of innovation in action, rather than innovation in concept alone.

Throughout the day, NUCATS researchers and teams reflected on the past year’s successes, lessons learned and opportunities to move forward:

The third-year kickoff wrapped up with group discussions and planning time – marking concrete next steps for each team as the new year moves forward.

Written by Kevin Castro