Events under 'Other Sponsor'

Department of Health Sciences: 2026 Research Excellence Awardees

Please join the Department of Health Sciences Office of Research & Scholarship for their April research forum featuring three PhD students discussing their research.

The hybrid forum will take place in person (MacNider 321, LUNCH provided) and via Zoom. Please register to attend.

Questions? Contact the Department of Health Sciences Office of Research & Scholarship at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Addressing Statistical Challenges in Long COVID Research: Auxiliary Variable-Dependent Sampling Designs and Clustering of Complex Data Types

Long COVID is a chronic condition following acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and is characterized by a variety of persistent and potentially disabling symptoms. In this talk, we will take a deep dive into how various statistical challenges have been addressed in the analysis of adult and pediatric data from the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative.

First, we will discuss the study’s resource-efficient design in which certain assessments are only performed in a subset of individuals, with sampling based on values of auxiliary variables. This sampling occurs repeatedly over multiple visits until an individual is selected, yielding a sample drawn with complex time-varying selection probabilities dependent on auxiliary variable trajectories, and temporal dependence between the timing of sampling and timing of outcome measurement.

Second, we will discuss cross-sectional and longitudinal clustering of complex data types, including social determinants of health and repeated measurements of self-reported symptom data. These approaches include novel Bernoulli mixture modeling and latent Markov models with sparse negative-unlabeled data for characterizing Long COVID progression.

Speaker:
Harrison Reeder, PhD
Instructor in Investigation, Massachusetts General Hospital Biostatistics
Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

This event is being cross-promoted by the NC BERD Consortium, a collaboration of the CTSA-funded BERD cores at UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Duke University School of Medicine.

PCORnet and STAR Clinical Research Network Roadshow Workshop

This hybrid event is designed for investigators and industry partners who are new to PCORnet and STAR Clinical Research operations. Attendees will gain a clear understanding of PCORnet and the STAR CRN's capabilities, explore meaningful insights, and discover opportunities to spark new collaborations in medical research.

Agenda

Working With STAR CRN & PCORnet

• Overview & Leveraging the PCORnet® Front Door
• Proposal Development Q&A
• Partner Engagement

Breakout Sessions

• Observational Research Design
• Clinical Trials & Cohort Studies Design

Interactive Networking & Collaboration Opportunites

Date/Location

April 16, 2026
12 - 4 p.m. (lunch included)
Erwin Square Plaza, 2200 W. Main St., Wing B Training Room 252, Durham, NC 27705

Join virtually or in person!

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Cosmos Spark: Discovering Tools, Community, and the Future of Research

Join UNC Health for a Cosmos informational session. Epic Cosmos is a tool researchers can use to do analytics and research across many sites.

The session will highlight Cosmos's capabilities, outline governance and access pathways, feature a current Cosmos user who will demonstrate how the platform supports real‑world research, and conclude with a Q&A to support next steps.

This event is open to all UNC Health and UNC employees.

What is Epic Cosmos?
Read more about it here: Epic Cosmos

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Gettin’ daggity with it: Using DAGs as Tools for Variable Selection

Ever pondered whether to include a variable in an analysis – is the variable necessary, will its inclusion/exclusion introduce bias in the analysis? Why is the variable important anyways – is it a mediator, a moderator, a confounder, or some combination of these?

This course introduces how to incorporate DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs) in analysis planning to help think through what variables to collect and use (or refrain from using) in an analysis.

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“Human-in-the-Loop” Thematic Analysis: Using R to Apply Current Recommendations for Incorporating LLMs into Qualitative Research

Do you want to explore current research recommendations in the literature on incorporating LLMs into qualitative/mixed methods data analysis, or are you interested in implementing LLMs into your qualitative/mixed methods workflow? If so, this short course is designed for you!

In this course we will examine current recommendations from the literature regarding integrating AI (specifically LLMs) into the process of qualitative coding. Acknowledging that a wide range of qualitative approaches exist, all examples and recommendations in this course will be based on the 6 Phase Thematic Analysis Framework proposed by Braun & Clarke 2006 to simplify the course scope.

No perquisites in qualitative methods or coding are required for this course – just bring your computer & your curiosity!

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Overview of 2026 NIH Requirements: Biosketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support

This session provides an overview of some of the upcoming changes to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application requirements, including new Common Forms that will be required for due dates on or after January 25, 2026.

In particular, this presentation will focus on the Biosketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support forms, which will need to be completed using the SciENcv tool. It will include demonstrations of SciENcv as well as ORCID iD creation and linking steps. The presentation aims to prepare researchers for the new NIH requirements by providing detailed instructions and resources to ensure compliance.

This program is offered via Zoom by the Health Sciences Library and led by Katherine Howell, MSLIS.

Register

“Human-in-the-Loop” Thematic Analysis: Using R to Apply Current Recommendations for Incorporating LLMs into Qualitative Research

Do you want to explore current research recommendations in the literature on incorporating LLMs into qualitative/mixed methods data analysis, or are you interested in implementing LLMs into your qualitative/mixed methods workflow? If so, this short course is designed for you!

In this course we will examine current recommendations from the literature regarding integrating AI (specifically LLMs) into the process of qualitative coding. Acknowledging that a wide range of qualitative approaches exist, all examples and recommendations in this course will be based on the 6 Phase Thematic Analysis Framework proposed by Braun & Clarke 2006 to simplify the course scope.

No perquisites in qualitative methods or coding are required for this course – just bring your computer & your curiosity!

Register

The New NIH Public Access Policy: What You Need to Know

The 2024 NIH Public Access Policy includes several significant changes from the previous policy, and applies to all NIH-funded manuscripts accepted for publication on or after July 1, 2025. Learn more about what has changed, how to comply, and what to expect going forward.

This program is offered via Zoom by the Health Sciences Library and the Scholarly Communications Office, and led by Collin Drummond and Katherine Howell.

Register

Accelerate your ideas through customer discovery and market opportunity validation!

KickStart Venture Services is recruiting community startups as well as faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students with innovations and an interest in commercialization to participate in their virtual NSF I-Corps program. They will teach you the principles of customer discovery to help you better understand the market potential of your innovation!

The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Program (I-Corps) was launched in 2011 and has quickly become one of the world’s largest and most successful technology commercialization accelerators. The I-Corps regional program helps researchers and aspiring innovators determine if they are solving a real-world problem with true market opportunity. NSF’s I-Corps Program not only provides funding, mentoring, and networking opportunities to help commercialize promising technologies, it is offered at NO COST to the community.

Register

For more information about the I-Corps Program, visit KickStart Venture Services.

Workshop: Advancing Novel Surrogate Endpoints for Rare Disease Drug Development

The Triangle Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science & Innovation (Triangle CERSI) invites you to join FDA, researchers, clinicians, and innovators for a free, one-day virtual workshop open to the public focused on emerging scientific and regulatory pathways for advancing surrogate endpoints in rare disease drug development.

This workshop is being convened in support of the Rare Disease Endpoint Advancement (RDEA) Pilot Program, established under the FDA User Fee Reauthorization Act of 2022 and the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022. The RDEA program is intended to support the development of efficacy endpoints for rare disease treatments by fostering dialogue among FDA, researchers, clinicians, industry, patient communities, and other stakeholders.

Triangle CERSI is partnering with the UNC School of Medicine to offer ACCME-based continuing medical education credit.

Register

Accelerate your ideas through customer discovery and market opportunity validation!

KickStart Venture Services is recruiting community startups as well as faculty, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students with innovations and an interest in commercialization to participate in their virtual NSF I-Corps program. They will teach you the principles of customer discovery to help you better understand the market potential of your innovation!

The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps Program (I-Corps) was launched in 2011 and has quickly become one of the world’s largest and most successful technology commercialization accelerators. The I-Corps regional program helps researchers and aspiring innovators determine if they are solving a real-world problem with true market opportunity. NSF’s I-Corps Program not only provides funding, mentoring, and networking opportunities to help commercialize promising technologies, it is offered at NO COST to the community.

Register

For more information about the I-Corps Program, visit KickStart Venture Services.