DaCCoTA

Welcome to the Dakota Community Collaborative on Translational Activity.

What is the DaCCoTA?

The goal of the DaCCoTA is to bring together researchers and clinicians with diverse experience from across the region to develop unique and innovative means of combating disease in North and South Dakota.

We believe advances in disease treatment will come from broad approaches by collective groups of clinical and basic researchers who are focused on conducting clinical/translational research.

The DaCCoTA is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U54GM128729.

DaCCoTA News

Fall 2022 Funding Opportunities Offered Through the DaCCoTA

Letters of intent for all programs are due October 21^st, 2022
Full applications will be invited from selected applicants and will be due January 20^th, 2023
The anticipated award period is September 2023 - August 2024

DaCCoTA Scholars Program

The purpose of this award is to stimulate the development of new CTR investigators. Awardees will receive up to $160,000 in annual research support for up to 5 years, which includes salary support (50% FTE plus fringe) and guarantees a minimum of 50% protected research time for the project. The DaCCoTA will provide the first three years of funding, and the final two years will be funded by the applicant’s home institution (contingent on adequate progress). Early career faculty are encouraged to apply.

DaCCoTA Scholars RFA

Community Engagement Scholars Program

This award is a joint effort between the Professional Development and Community Engagement and Outreach Cores with the goal of developing successful clinical and translational research (CTR) investigators. Scholars will work collaboratively with the Community Engagement and Outreach Core to conduct key informant interviews and focus groups to further refine community-based health research disparities or identify and pursue T3 and T4 research projects related to community-based health research priorities. Awardees will receive salary support (50% FTE plus fringe) that guarantees a minimum of 50% protected research time for the project and up to $160,000 in annual research support for up to 5 years. The DaCCoTA will provide the first three years of funding, and the final two years will be funded by the applicant’s home institution (contingent on adequate progress). Early career faculty are encouraged to apply.

Community Engagement Scholars RFA

Clinical Research Opportunities Program

This program provides 20% release time (up to NIH cap) to community-practicing, hospital-based clinicians to allow for participation in training activities and collaboration in disease-focused CTR. The goal of the program is to begin to shift translational research in the Upper Midwest to an enterprise informed by the patient. It is not intended that supported individuals will become full-time, independent investigators with funding for their own research projects. However, it is expected that providing an understanding of CTR and tools for identifying unmet medical needs will allow trained clinicians to become effective collaborators. Individuals may collaborate with both clinical and non-clinical scientists to help identify unmet clinical needs that can become the focus of translational research efforts.

Clinical Research Opportunities RFA

Introduction to Research Pilot Award

The Introduction to Research Award is intended to allow non-faculty clinicians or early-stage investigators (ESIs; residents/postdoctoral scholars) to engage in research. Applications should address: 1) Behavioral health (including substance use disorder, mental health, suicidality, and overall wellness; 2) Food insecurity, nutrition, and food deserts; 3) Chronic disease (diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity and pain); 4) Culturally appropriate and trauma-informed healthcare and research; and 5.) Unresolved trauma (health impacts of trauma, toxic stress, adverse childhood experiences, disproportionate foster care experiences).
This award aims to recruit a: 1) clinician from the American Indian Collaborative Rural Research Network (AICoRN) or rural and tribal communities; or 2) ESIs who have interest but no experience managing a research project or preparing a grant. Clinician applicants will be recruited as adjunct faculty into one of the partner institutions and partnered with the Cores to assist with delivering the intended outcomes of refining a hypothesis, designing a CTR study, and step-by-step introduction to grant components that would be required for a subsequent Feasibility application. Similarly, ESIs awardees will be assigned a mentor to assist in developing an individualized training plan (ITP). Successful completion of these proposals should result in a more research savvy clinician and a submitted Feasibility proposal or ESIs that are more interested and prepared to engage in translational research.

Intro to Research Pilot RFA

Feasibility Pilot Award

The Feasibility Award is intended to provide support to allow a clinician/non-clinician team to form around a novel hypothesis. Applications can consider: 1) Behavioral health (including substance use disorder, mental health, suicidality, and overall wellness; 2) Food insecurity, nutrition, and food deserts; 3) Chronic disease (diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity and pain); 4) Culturally appropriate and trauma-informed healthcare and research; and 5.) Unresolved trauma (health impacts of trauma, toxic stress, adverse childhood experiences, disproportionate foster care experiences). Applications should focus on T2-T4 translational research, although T1 studies will be considered if there is a clear plan to progress to T2-T4. The primary goal is to allow a team to form and connect with the CTR Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core; Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Core; Community Engagement and Outreach Core; and Pilot Projects Program to generate competitive proposals for the CTR Ready-to-Go Pilot Award mechanism.

Feasibility Pilot RFA

Ready-to-Go Pilot Award

The Ready-to-Go Award is intended for those projects with existing significant preliminary data in support of a novel hypothesis. Applications can consider: 1) Behavioral health (including substance use disorder, mental health, suicidality, and overall wellness; 2) Food insecurity, nutrition, and food deserts; 3) Chronic disease (diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity and pain); 4) Culturally appropriate and trauma-informed healthcare and research; and 5.) Unresolved trauma (health impacts of trauma, toxic stress, adverse childhood experiences, disproportionate foster care experiences). Applications should focus on T2-T4 translational research, although T1 studies will be considered if there is a clear plan to progress to T2-T4. Successful completion of these proposals should lead to a collaborative extramural grant submission and peer- reviewed manuscript submission.

Ready-to-Go Pilot RFA

TREE Pilot Award

The Translating Epidemiology to Experiments (TREE) Pilot Grant Award is intended to provide seed funding for a public health/laboratory scientist team towards highly innovative projects that seek to translate promising epidemiological findings at the population level to relevant in vitro and/or in vivo experiments and/or the reverse, from in vitro and in vivo observations to a population setting. Applications are envisioned to focus on T0-T1 translational research, whereas T2-T4 studies are a better fit for other Pilot Project funding mechanisms.

TREE Pilot RFA

DaCCoTA Resources

Enroll in the Pathfinder web portal to find collaborators

You will also be able to access various clinical and translational research resources including the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design Core; the Community Engagement and Outreach Core; the Professional Development Core; the Pilot Projects Program; and the Clinical Research Resources and Facilities Core.

Explore the resources available through the DaCCoTA

Our Partners

DaCCoTA investigators may also wish to explore partnerships with the Turtle Mountain Genetics Laboratory.

What is Clinical Translational Research?

Clinical/translational research (CTR) focuses on translating findings from basic research into clinical applications with the overall goal of improving the health of the community.

componentsandgoals