In line with our commitment to DEIA, the CCTS Programs and Services will:

• Engage diverse community members in the research process through training and collaboration.

• Provide services that support investigators in developing equitable research studies.

• Dedicate funding to support clinical translational research that aims to promote health equity.

To date we have taken the following actions:

• Implemented a Community Scientist Academy (CSA) program to introduce community members to the basics of research.

• Implemented a community reviewer program, called The Academy of Community Reviewers (ACR), to train community members to review grant proposals and engage research teams as collaborators.

• Compile a list of community trainees for future collaboration in research activities.

• Require applicants for CCTS pilot funding to describe the potential impact of proposed project on health disparities/health equity in underrepresented populations.

• Provide investigators recruitment and community engagement consultation to aid in recruiting diverse eligible study participants and community partners.

• Created the Executive Committee on Lifespan Research and provided over 60 consultations to help researchers engage underrepresented populations.

• Awarded over $400,000 to support research that evaluates or develops new methods for increasing inclusion, identifying, monitoring or resolving health disparities.

Future actions:

• Expand the accessibility of the CSA and ACR programs to more underrepresented populations by offering online program engagement.  

• Develop toolkits to aid investigators in recruiting study participants of diverse populations reflective of disease burden.

• Require clinical investigators applying for CCTS funding to provide strategies for recruiting diverse populations that are representative of disease burden.

• Require applicants for all CCTS funding mechanisms to describe the potential impact of the proposed or initiated research on health disparities/health equity in underrepresented populations.

• Design and implement an innovative, equity-oriented approach to ethics review of data science projects to evaluate improvements in data equity, model fairness and mitigation of bias in data models which alleviates health disparities.