Research Capacity Core

Research Capacity Core Summary The primary goal of this core is to create infrastructure to support investigators in our IHER Center. Over the past decade and a half, DSU has expanded its faculty in biomedical- and health-related areas and has grown its research infrastructure. In order to sustain and grow our research enterprise in this

time of hyper-competition for funding, DSU must support its current faculty to develop outstanding research programs. Quality research infrastructure and access to research resources are absolutely crucial for developing our institutional research and research training capacity. The Research Capacity Core of our

IHER Center will strengthen DSU’s infrastructure for biomedical, social and behavioral research related to health disparities and health equity. This Core will provide support for qualitative research and program evaluation for DSU investigators, and will support existing cores in microscopy and cell electrophysiology that provide crucial

resources to biomedical researcher and pilot projects. It will also provide research design, epidemiology and biostatistics support for health equity researchers, primarily through partnership with the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Research Design (BERD) Core of the NIH-funded Delaware Clinical & Translational

Research Center (ACCEL), in which DSU is a partner. The BERD Core provides consultative services in the areas of epidemiology, biostatistics, research design, data management, and bio- and medical informatics, and the services vary from assistance analyzing existing datasets to developing collaborative

complex data management strategies and protocols that inform grant or IRB submissions. Consultation and collaboration emphasize developing engagement with the clinical research community, as well as community partners. The Research Infrastructure Core will also support development of new research resources at DSU

and strengthen what is currently available. First, we will develop a Qualitative Research & Evaluation Resource to assist behavioral and social researchers at DSU incorporate qualitative methods into their research to gain a deeper understanding of the “why” and “how” of people’s experiences and perceptions.

It will also support RCMI research and pilot projects with software tools for behavioral and population research such as GIS, NVivo, Dedoose, ATLAS.ti, SSPS and data security expertise for human subjects data and to support joining the REDCap consortium. Responsive to the RCMI mechanism our IHER Center

supports basic biomedical research as well as behavioral and social research related to health equity. Our core will strengthen existing core facilities in bioimaging and cell electrophysiology to enhance the quality and productivity of biomedical research projects supported by the Center.