FDA and Georgetown University Medical Center have established a new partnership to stimulate innovation in regulatory science, ethics, education, and training. The partnership will do research and public health activities in novel technologies, public health preparedness, and bioinformatics. There will also be joint mentoring of students both doctoral and post-doctoral to help them work together on collaborate research. To complement the program, scientific staff exchanges and professional development opportunities will take place.
Another university program is reaching out to the community. Researchers with the University of California Irvine’s Institute for Clinical & Translational Science (ICTS) are taking their research into the community and used grant funding to establish the Orange County Center for Community Health Research. This Center provides a framework for community-based groups to organize their own research on such issues as childhood obesity, diabetes, and poverty.
“It allows UCI for the first time to have researchers engage with the community in a really meaningful way, “says Dan Cooper, Director of the ICTS and the Orange County Center for Community Health Research. “We now have the infrastructure to build real collaborations and to respond to community interests.”
The Center doesn’t fund any specific studies but acts as a resource hub for community-based research in the county. The Center provides web-based training and video conferencing, team building, workshops, and other services to facilitate networking, education, and mentoring between UCI and the public. The Center also functions as a clearinghouse for healthcare data in Orange County that is currently available from participating studies and can now be shared with community groups.
Tufts University on February 7th launched the “Tufts Institute for Pharmaceutical Partnerships” website that is now operating as their “Global Pharma Strategy and Project Development HUB”. The website at www.tuftspharmapartners.org is custom developed and designed to educate and engage pharmaceutical partners, qualify partners, and create distinctive alliances. The website functions as the Institute’s principal commercialization portal, communication vehicle, strategic market resource, and information repository to help form important strategic alliances.
Current information available from the HUB includes five thematic areas of expertise derived from five different schools and one center. The site provides immediate access to nearly 60 research activities driven by more than 50 participating faculty members with navigable information in more than 300 categories.
