Mission and History of a P20 Clinical & Translational Science Award (CTSA)

As part of the new NIH Roadmap, CTSA awards are intended to lower barriers between disciplines, and encourage creative, innovative approaches to solve complex medical problems http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/clinicaldiscipline.asp. The overall intent is to facilitate the translation of research from the bench, to bedside, and finally to the community.

Meharry was recently given a P20 planning grant CTSA from the National Center for Research Resources. Funded for one year, and begun in September, 2006, the overarching objective of the P20 is to survey the resources currently available for clinical and translational research at Meharry and to develop plans for an institutional CTSA to be submitted the following year.

This planning grant will allow us to optimize both the structure of the academic home and the iterative evaluation processes necessary to transform our mission to be in line with the goals of the CTSA Roadmap, and to include the Schools of Graduate Studies, Medicine, Dentistry and Public Health.

This transformation will be considered in conjunction with Tennessee State University's Center for Health Research, and their Schools of Nursing and Health Sciences, as well as numerous local public and private community partners.