ABSTRACT – The Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), the CTSA Hub at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), serves a region of the country with a disproportionate burden of multiple
chronic diseases and health disparities. The COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp relief the critical
importance of translating new scientific discoveries into interventions that improve the health of patients and
their communities in an efficient, effective and equitable manner. The unique health challenges faced by our
communities previously prompted the creation of the CCTS Partner Network – spanning Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana – to ensure that our research and training efforts serve the populations in our region while
maximizing collaborative synergies in clinical and translational science (CTS) investigation to catalyze
discovery and accelerate the dissemination and implementation of evidence toward health impact. As it
continues to serve as a national resource for responding to public health emergencies, the CCTS Partner
Network will provide programmatic leadership and shared governance (Aim 1) to mobilize the resources and
talents throughout the region as it brings together academic, health system, industry and community partners
to advance discovery science in concert with the CTSA consortium. The CCTS will further the development of
a vibrant, diverse clinical and translational research workforce (Aim 2) by expanding programs that provide
both didactic and experiential training to convey new skills, perspectives and understanding of the translation
process for faculty, trainees, clinical research professionals and community alike. The Center will promote
community and stakeholder engagement (Aim 3) in trusting, bidirectional relationships in all aspects of the
research process to develop, demonstrate, disseminate and implement new discoveries to enhance the impact
of health insights on those who will most benefit. It will leverage expertise in health informatics, clinical
research informatics and translational bioinformatics to extend collaborative, coordinated data analytics and
digital innovations across the Partner Network and the CTSA consortium (Aim 4) that allow full utilization of
real world data together with rich, deep clinical information to enable discovery research from the bench to the
learning healthcare system. The CCTS Hub and Network will support ethical, scientifically rigorous, informative
clinical trials and pilot studies by providing a range of specialized services, resources and consultations (Aim
5) guided by NCATS principles of effective translational science. Through these efforts, the CCTS will
formalize its CTS Research Program (Aim 6) to identify, develop and test novel approaches to overcome
significant roadblocks in biomedical research, generating new insights that can be generalized to other CTSA
Hubs. By achieving these aims, the CCTS will harness the Network’s vibrant collaborative energy to accelerate
the discovery, dissemination and implementation of new findings, deliver treatments to more people more
quickly, reduce the burden of chronic disease and advance health equity in the Deep South and beyond.