The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor today received a $58 million grant from the National Institute of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). The grant is the largest single federal research grant in U-M Medical School’s history.
The capital will provide for up to five years of funding for the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR). More than 50 other universities nationwide are supported through the CTSA program.
MICHR assists U-M health and life science researchers turn their best ideas and discoveries into tests, treatments, care innovations, and cures through training, funding, and central research services. It also gives community members, including patients, the ability to help shape research priorities.
“The new funding means more chances to translate U-M ideas into knowledge and breakthroughs that can eventually help patients and the general public,” says Dr. George A. Mashour, director of MICHR, who led the team that applied for the grant. “Without community participation in all phases of research, many of those ideas simply can’t go very far.”
More than 28,000 Michigan residents have already signed up for U-M’s MICHR registry, which allows researchers to reach out when they fit the requirements for a study. More than 160,000 people take part in 1,600 U-M studies annually, ranging from basic surveys to long-term tests of new drugs, devices, and diet or exercise changes. This includes many patients at the hospitals and clinics run by Michigan Medicine, the university’s academic medical center.
“This grant, plus a sizable commitment of U-M funds, puts us on the cusp of an exciting new era of clinical and translational research at U-M,” adds Mashour. “MICHR is proud of its past and enthusiastic about the future.”
MICHR currently lists 200 research projects in need of volunteers, which can be found here.
