On Jul. 14, 2010, the Center for Clinical and Translational Research (CCTR) received a $20 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health. The CTSA made VCU the first academic health center in Virginia to join a national consortium of research centers sponsored by the NIH’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

The NIH announced that VCU was among nine institutions selected this year, bringing membership to 55 centers in 28 states and the District of Columbia. When the program is fully implemented, it will support approximately 60 CTSAs across the nation.

The CCTR was founded at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 to enhance research infrastructure and promote collaboration.

Through the VCU CCTR, researchers will benefit from centralized management, Web-based data sharing, training and access to a rich array of resources, including biostatistics, ethics, research study and regulatory support. In addition, students can pursue a transdisciplinary education through the center’s M.S. and Ph.D. degree programs in clinical and translational science.

“This award will engage academic units across the university in a common purpose,” said Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the VCU School of Medicine. “Effective translational research requires the combined expertise of multiple disciplines and a culture of collaboration.