Institutional Infrastructure to Support Translational Research

In this paper, we report a qualitative study of translational researchers in health sciences in a large public Research I university in the United States. This paper first identifies challenges faced by translational researchers in mobilizing necessary resources such as data and personnel to effectively conduct research. Then we use the theoretical constructs underlying those challenges to identify social and technical infrastructural needs that facilitate translational research. The major challenges emerged from the data include difficulty in identifying compatible collaborators, barriers within the existing research culture, insufficient organizational and technical support for complex data management tasks, and the lack of project management skills and tools. Using institutional infrastructures to support translational research is suggested.