CTSI Launches New Workshop Series

The University at Buffalo’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute has launched a new set of workshops as part of its Core Competencies in Clinical and Translational Research series.

The new workshop series, “Community-University Collaborations in Research,” combines the core competencies of community engagement and cultural diversity and falls within the CTSI Workforce Development Core.

The series has two focus areas: the first is the importance of research partnerships between the university and the community, and the second is the impact that community engagement has on research, particularly research aimed at the reduction of health disparities within the community.

According to Ashley Regling, MA, CTSI Scientific Workforce Specialist, last year two separate core competency workshops series were held in the Community Engagement and Cultural Diversity areas. Workshop planners determined that the two series were closely aligned, and decided to combine them for the new series.

The first session of the new series, “What Water Purification Technology and Bacteriophage Therapy Have in Common,” took place last November. Community partner, John Richter, Pretreatment Coordinator, Town of Amherst Water Pollution Control Facility and university partner, Oscar Gomez, MD, PhD, Associate Professor and Division Chief, Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, reported on their innovative collaborative research project.

When asked to identify elements of the November workshop that were particularly effective, participant evaluations indicated “Conversation between community and researchers” and “How they showed the collaborative work in which the community was included.”

Three workshops are planned for the Spring 2019 semester; each session will feature a university partner and a community partner. Workshops will be held on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus during the late afternoon. “We are currently finalizing sessions and are encouraged by the response from both university and community partners on some very interesting topics, with the next new session to be late February,” Regling said.

“The goal of this series is to educate attendees on the importance of community-university research partnerships,” Regling said. “Attendees will learn how community engagement has impacted the research being conducted at the University at Buffalo, especially research aimed at reducing health disparities and how to become involved in these kinds of research opportunities.”

“Attendees will gain a greater awareness of the research projects being conducted at the University at Buffalo, how the community has been involved in research, how community involvement has impacted research, and potential opportunities for future partnerships,” she added.

All the workshops are supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers UL1TR001412 and KL2TR001413 to the University at Buffalo.