Since receiving its first Clinical & Translational Science Award in 2010, UC Irvine – through the ICTS – has dramatically increased the number of incoming grants, stimulated important scientific discoveries, and worked with community partners to identify and resolve health needs in the region. To date, the ICTS has rendered services or support to 1,423 investigators, helped generate 2,860 peer-reviewed papers published in major biomedical journals and been instrumental in securing $346 million in grants for UC Irvine researchers.
The ICTS also implemented the first structured research program for UC Irvine medical students. Begun in 2016, the Medical Student Research Program has benefited nearly 300 students, with more than 125 UC Irvine faculty mentors involved. The MSRP received two NIH training grants (awarded in 2020 and 2021) to fund medical student summer research and has since brought in over $300,000 to the university for students.
Each CTSA hub is required to find and support a set of innovative pilot research projects every year. Since 2010, the ICTS has delivered $2,637,227 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to 99 projects, with a return on investment of $13 in subsequent grant money for every NCATS dollar awarded.
In its most recent five-year funding cycle, the ICTS played a leading role in producing an array of clinical research advances at both the regional and national levels.
The ICTS’s goals for the next seven years include:
- Advancing translational science and research by robust engagement of faculty, staff, learners and community stakeholders to reduce health disparities and inequities
- Embedding principles and practices of inclusive excellence in all hub activities
- Building a sustainable and responsive organization guided by key themes of quality by design, open science, rapid dissemination and implementation of biomedical discoveries, and strong interactions across the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences’ CTSA network
