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NCCAM Program for Research Capacity Development at CAM Institutions

Project Titles:

  1. Centers for CAM Research Capacity-Building (C3B)
  2. CAM Research Faculty Development Support
  3. Augmenting Research Resources at CAM Institutions

Council Date: June 6, 2008

Program Officer:
Barbara C. Sorkin, PhD
Phone: 301-496-4792
Email: sorkinb@mail.nih.gov

Background

Developmental Centers for Research on CAM

Rigorous CAM research requires a multidisciplinary approach that includes active involvement of CAM institutions and CAM professionals. Since its inception NCCAM has supported vigorous efforts aimed at supporting the development of increased research capacity at CAM institutions and among CAM professionals. A centerpiece of NCCAM's institutional capacity-building efforts is the Developmental Centers for Research on CAM (DCRC) program. At its February 1, 2008 meeting, NACCAM recommended that a Council Working Group review and make recommendations for fine-tuning this program’s goals and approaches to achieving them.

The Research Capacity-Building Working Group met on March 25, 2008. The Group recognized that building sustainable, rigorous research programs at institutions that have not, historically, had a strong research focus requires long-term commitments, and that the criteria for assessing the success of institutions participating in such programs should more appropriately reflect this reality. In addition, the Group expressed the belief that a broader range of goals than the ability of CAM institutions to independently secure major NIH funding would better serve the program objective of CAM research capacity building. Further, the Working Group recognized that stronger and more deliberate support for mentoring at many levels (including administrative as well as research) will play a critical role in the research capacity-building process.

The Working Group recommended that NCCAM continue to support the development of rigorous research capacity at CAM institutions; that NCCAM should allow a greater range of approaches to building capacity that reflect the specific goals and current resources of the participating institutions; and that institutional capacity-building should include explicit requirements and adequate support for mentoring by highly experienced and successful investigators working with the institution.

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Other Capacity-Building Efforts

In addition to the DCRC Program, NCCAM currently supports development of research capacity at CAM institutions through a range of efforts that include: 1) career development awards for researchers with a range of research experience; 2) individual and institutional training awards; 3) institutional awards for curriculum development.

Concepts for Improved Approaches to CAM Research Capacity Building

We propose several concepts that would supplement existing programs and activities aimed at building sustainable research capacity at CAM institutions and among CAM professionals. The new approaches would include mechanisms to further support the development of collaborations between CAM institutions and research-intensive institutions in CAM research; to support further development of research expertise in faculty with a range of levels of seniority at CAM institutions; and to support initial development of resources that would extend the range of research that could be conducted at CAM institutions.

1. Centers for CAM Research Capacity-Building (C3B)

Objectives:
The goal of the proposed C3B program, as for the DCRC program it would succeed, would remain fostering development of CAM research capacity at CAM institutions. The program would be restructured to better recognize the variety of specific research goals and levels of research expertise and prior research experience of a range of CAM institutions. It would focus 1) on support of multidisciplinary collaborations in CAM research with conventional, research-intensive biomedical and/or behavioral research institutions, and 2) on the development of strong mentoring relationships between individuals at the participating institutions, and on the development, through research and mentoring, of a broad range of scientific and administrative skills required to participate in state-of-the-art CAM research.

C3B Centers would require multidisciplinary collaborations between CAM institutions and biomedical or behavioral research-intensive institutions in several rigorous CAM research projects. Research projects and cores would be required to pair researchers with strong funding and publication track records at research-intensive institutions with appropriate CAM institution staff in mentoring relationships. C3B applicants would be required to specify both scientific and developmental goals and metrics or milestones by which progress will be assessed. The program will allow a range of eventual outcomes, including but not limited to sustained inter-institutional collaborations or free-standing independent research programs. Substantial NCCAM staff involvement would be ensured by utilizing a cooperative agreement mechanism.

2. CAM Research Faculty Development Support

Objectives:
While the C3B would explicitly support mentoring of individuals supported by the Centers, other CAM institution faculty may require mentoring outside the context of the C3B in order to develop the ability to fully participate in CAM research. The available career development mechanisms are not well matched to CAM institutions; such institutions may not have sufficient highly research experienced faculty to provide the requisite mentoring, and the existing mechanisms are not well adapted to inter-institutional mentoring. This concept proposes to support intensive periods of research training for CAM institution faculty at a variety of levels of experience. Support would be provided for substantial periods of research training at a research-intensive institution, as well as for continued mentoring by highly experienced investigators with strong research publication and research support track records.

Approaches for staff with a range of levels of experience would support sabbaticals in which the mentee might:

Where possible these activities would utilize standard, existing NIH training and career development mechanisms, although specific initiatives might be required in some instances.

3. Augmenting Research Resources at CAM Institutions

Objectives:
Many CAM institutions have limited access to research support facilities, resources, and/or instrumentation that most biomedical researchers take for granted. For example, there may not be a biostatistician on staff at the institution; instrumentation for analysis of botanical extracts may be limited; there may be limited access to cutting-edge microscopy or fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). In many cases the institutional demand for such facilities can be met by collaboration with researchintensive institutions, or by leveraging other available resources, and is not strong enough to justify on3 site support of these costly resources. In other cases the currently supported research and projected future research directions of an institution’s faculty (or, jointly, of the faculty of several CAM institutions) may be sufficiently hindered by the lack of dedicated resources that their acquisition is justified. This initiative would provide peer-reviewed financial support for the acquisition of such resources by a CAM institution or consortium of CAM institutions where: