Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Career Development

Description:

The Center for Clinical and Translational Science has organized a comprehensive educational certificate program for UIC research staff involved in human subjects research [clinical and translational, community-based and/or social/behavioral research].

Primary Audience: New and/or experienced Research Coordinators, Research Specialists, or Staff who work on research projects that involve human subjects, targeting those with project, personnel and/or grants management responsibilities.

Program Goals:

• Offer opportunities for training and professional development for research coordinators and other staff that will add value as they advance their careers at UIC.
• Increase knowledge and self-efficacy of research staff in performing their job responsibilities.
• Provide a seal of approval that Principal Investigators recognize as representing minimal competence when hiring and promoting research staff.
• Communicate standards and best practices for the responsible conduct of research specific to the roles and responsibilities of research coordinators at UIC.

Elements of the RC+ Certificate Program:

• Proof of CITI Trainings
• Complete online course modules
• Attend Best Practice Hour seminars
• Attend Master Classes

*Certificate program is ONLY open to Research Staff at UIC.

Position: Graduate Students, Pre & Post-Doctoral Trainees, Faculty

Topic: Career Development

Description:

Successful career development grants need a strong research concept, a solid career development plan, and skillful writing. CCTS Grant Writing Coaching Groups can help support you! Modeled after successful formats from the National Research Mentoring Network, these small groups are geared toward senior postdocs writing K99/R00 proposals and junior faculty writing other types of K grants. (Other types of career development proposals are also welcome.) With support from peers and a senior faculty coach with NIH reviewing experience, 4-5 participants will work together to refine their Specific Aims pages, sketches, and career development/training plans.

Current meetings are on Wednesdays at 11 AM (5 openings) via Zoom.

Eligibility:

To participate, you must

• Be a senior postdoc or junior faculty member planning to submit a K99, other types of K proposal, or similar career development proposals like AHA or ALA.
• Have an aims page drafted (no matter how rough)
• Have identified a primary mentor
• Planning to submit a proposal for deadlines in June 2025 (or October 2025) 

Sign up for a Group starting in February!

Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Drug Discovery

Description:

This presentation will provide an overview of the services offered by the Investigational Drug Service (IDS) and their roles in supporting clinical investigations.

Speaker: 
David Chan, PharmD, PhD
Coordinator, Investigational Drug Services
Clinical Assistant Professor, Retzky College of Pharmacy
University of Illinois Chicago

RC+ Program: Core Competency #3: Medicines Development and Regulations

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position:

Topic: Team Science

Description:

"The Research Team: Principal Investigator Considerations," a talk focused on the critical role of the full research team in driving project success. Learn how PIs can strengthen outcomes by understanding team dynamics, investing in professional development, and fostering a culture of support and collaboration.

Speakers: 

Charity Ball, DNP, RN
Director of Clinical Research Education and Co-Director of Clinical Research Operations
Clinical Research Center
Center for Clinical and Translational Science

Clinical Research Investigators Seminar Series (CRISS): This training seminar series is intended to provide faculty and other investigators with information and skills needed to conduct clinical research at UIC at all stages of a study’s lifecycle.

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Clinical Trial Operations/Finances

Description:

Adverse Events/Serious Adverse Events & Unanticipated Problems Identification & Documentation

The Best Practice Hour (BPH) is a series sponsored by the University of Illinois Cancer Center and the UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Each session will explore best practices for one aspect of conducting human subjects research (HSR).

OBJECTIVES:

1. Identify how GCPs protect research participants
2. Define adverse event (AE)
3. Define criteria for a serious adverse event (SAE)
4. Specify Research team members’ responsibilities for managing AE/SAE
5. Identify criteria for Prompt Reporting to the IRB
6. Identify minimum criteria for SAE reporting to the FDA and/or sponsor

Speaker: 
Lisa Lindemann, BSN RN
Senior Clinical Research Coordinator
Center for Clinical and Translational Science

RC+ Program:
Core Competency #4: Clinical Trial Operations

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position:

Topic: Biomedical Informatics/Data Science

Description:

QUICKSet, or “Query UIC Knowledge Set,” is the CCTS Biomedical Informatics Core built version of the i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) framework. The purpose of this tool is to allow researchers to access de-identified clinical data from the UI Health system to obtain aggregate patient counts. QUICKSet can facilitate a study by helping researchers to quickly establish the feasibility of carrying out a research study or clinical trial, work through hypothesis creation by continually modifying their own searches, and to identify potential cohorts for clinical trials.

Completion of this training module is required to gain access to the QUICKSet system. To request a consultation or supplementary service at CCTS, please visit Research Ally.

Position:

Topic: Human Subject Protections

Description:

CIRTification: Community Involvement in Research Training is a human research protections training program designed especially for community partners. If you will be involved in research and responsible for recruiting research participants, obtaining informed consent, or collecting data, this training is for you.  This course will cover:

• Introduction to Research: The basic terminology, activities, and people involved in research and various ethical considerations.
• Research History: Some research abuses that have happened in the past and the rules we have now to prevent those abuses.  This module also introduces the goals of community engagement in research and the important responsibilities shared by community research partners.
• Eligibility & Recruitment: The importance of adhering to study inclusion/exclusion criteria and best practices identifying and recruiting research participants.
• Informed Consent: The key components of informed consent, the kinds of information included in the consent form, how to respond to participants’ questions about enrollment and withdrawal, and discussion of practical challenges and good practices.
• The Institutional Review Board: The people on the IRB, the process of submitting to the IRB, and the criteria that IRBs apply to the review of research.
• Collecting & Protecting Data: How to protect participant privacy and keep data safe and confidential during collection, transport, and storage.
• Handling Issues in the Field: What do to if you suspect a co-worker of falsifying data, run into a study participant outside of work, and get challenging questions from study participants.

Position: Research Personnel, Graduate Students, Pre & Post-Doctoral Trainees, Faculty

Topic: Biomedical Informatics/Data Science

Description: The goal of the seminar and networking events for the Health Data Science Consortium is to bring together faculty, staff, and students from both east and west campus to learn together, create connections, and advance the field of health data science at UIC.

Position: Faculty

Topic: Mentoring/Leadership

Description:

CCTS is re-initiating research mentoring training for faculty at UIC. As in the past, the training will use the state-of-art Entering Mentoring curriculum developed by the Center for Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The effectiveness of the training was supported in a randomized control trial published in Academic Medicine (89:774-782, 2014).  

We are offering the eight-hour interactive training next month in two in-person sessions (10am-2pm) held on Tuesday, May 20th, and Thursday, May 22nd. 

These sessions will be held in-person in COMRB 5175.

Position: Research Personnel, Graduate Students, Pre & Post-Doctoral Trainees, Faculty

Topic: Biomedical Informatics/Data Science

Description:

This one-hour webinar will introduce the All of Us Research Program, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative aimed at supporting precision medicine through the collection and use of health data from a diverse national cohort. The session will provide an overview of the program’s goals, structure, and the Researcher Workbench—an online platform that allows access to this rich dataset for scientific inquiry. As the All of Us Researcher Workbench is available to eligible researchers at our institution, this webinar is intended to familiarize the campus community with the program and highlight how it can be used to support a range of biomedical research activities.

Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Community Engagement

Description:

This 2-day workshop is designed to increase research coordinators’ knowledge and felt experience surrounding the complexities of community partnerships in academic research.

When: Wednesday, May 28th from 1 PM - 3 PM and Thursday, May 29th from 1 PM- 3 PM

Register for Zoom link! 

*The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to registrants for this seminar

Contact: Sudeshna De, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position: Research Personnel

Topic: Research Ethics

Description:

The CCTS Master Class seminar series helps clinicians, research coordinators/specialists and other health research personnel develop a better understanding of conducting human subjects research at UIC. These immersive training workshops enable participants to implement best practices for human research subject protection, recruitment, study conduct, and data safety/security.

The Master Class on Informed Consent will be held over 2 days, about 2 hours per day, and is designed to increase research coordinators’ knowledge and confidence regarding the informed consent document and process.

When: Wednesday, August 27th, from 1 PM - 3 PM and Thursday, August 28th, from 1 PM - 3 PM 

Register for Zoom link! 

*The program will be recorded, and the recording will be made available to registrants for this seminar

Contact: Sudeshna De, Lawrie Zhang, ccts-training@uic.edu

Position:

Topic: Human Subject Protections

Description:

CIRTification Refresher: Continuing Education

This course is for users who have completed CIRTification: Community Involvement in Research Training and are required to take continuing education in human research protections per their institution's requirements. If you have not completed CIRTification: Community Involvement in Research Training, please complete that course first before taking this refresher.

In this course, we will review key concepts and cover some new ideas. We hope you gain new knowledge and skills for research.  This course will cover:

• Overview of Key Concepts: Review of the research process, the people involved and the tasks.
• Doing Trustworthy Research: Review the importance of following the IRB-approved research protocol, keeping data safe, and protecting privacy and confidentiality. You will also learn how to handle some tricky situations, including problems that may be unexpected.
• Overview of Informed Consent: Review key components of informed consent and good practices for responding to participants’ questions about enrollment, withdrawal and other issues.
• Research in Different Communities: Review considerations for doing research with people from different communities, including people who do not speak English, adults who cannot legally make decisions for themselves, and people who may have trouble saying “no” to an invitation to research.