CHA is a participating institution of Harvard Catalyst, Harvard’s clinical and translational science center dedicated to advancing clinical and translational research. The organization, which serves faculty and trainees across all Harvard schools and affiliate academic healthcare centers, provides a vast array of exceptional research resources to investigators. Founded in 2008, Harvard Catalyst is funded by the NIH’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA). As of 2020, an updated list of COVID resources has also been provided to the Harvard community.
Harvard Catalyst works to nurture the next generation of clinical and translational researchers by offering dozens of online and in-person courses, training programs, short courses, and workshops which have benefited thousands of participants. Additionally, it offers resources and programs that foster collaboration, team science, and innovation, such as Profiles and Translational Innovator. Profiles, an online searchable database of faculty and fellows from Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, and the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, allows users to search by topic, faculty name, department, job title and view networks of connections and publication lists. Translational Innovator, provides crowdsourcing opportunities such as ideation challenges, offering the research community innovative platforms and experimental processes to examine both the conduct of research and potential applications for solutions.
Harvard Catalyst supports Harvard-affiliated faculty, fellows, and researchers by offering pilot funding opportunities, regulatory guidance, biostatistical consulting, open-source informatics tools, and more. ⠀
Through its Community Engagement and Diversity Inclusion programs, it supports the translation of evidence-based policies to communities, and develops initiatives that support diversity and collaboration in medicine and public health. ⠀
Also available to researchers is SMART IRB, a platform designed to harmonize and streamline the IRB review process for multisite studies, while ensuring a high level of protection for research participants.
In addition, Harvard Catalyst has created a variety of Research Participant Brochures (available in more than 15 languages) that provide useful information to prospective participants on a range of research topics, including:
- Should I be a Research Participant?
- Participant Bill of Rights
- Social and Behavioral Research
- CT Scans for Research
- MRI Scans for Research
- PET Scans for Research
- Surrogate Decision-Making in Health Research
- COVID-19 Clinical Research Flyers
Researchers are encouraged to review the brochures and consider providing them to prospective study participants. The brochures can be downloaded and printed free of charge. The IRB office has some printed copies available for distribution; please contact the
chairboffice@challiance.org for more information.
All CHA faculty and study teams are encouraged to take advantage of the many above opportunities to help support and advance the CHA and Harvard research enterprise.