Ethics Regarding Coercion and Undue Influence in Human Subjects Research
Join the UNC Network for Research Professionals (NRP) for a hybrid education session on coercion and undue influence during the consent process in human subjects research.
In-person location: Brinkhous-Bullitt room 226
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.
For more information about the I-Corps Program, visit KickStart Venture Services.
Please join the Department of Health Sciences Office of Research & Scholarship for their March research forum to hear from three faculty members in a facilitated conversation about how they successfully competed for non-federal research grants.
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
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.
This 4-hour course will be held online only. Attendance is required as it will not be recorded.
Cognitive interviewing in survey research is a tool that allows researchers to improve survey questions and questionnaires by better understanding how respondents understand and respond to the questions they are being asked. Data gathered through cognitive interviews help researchers identify and remedy issues with their questionnaires.
This short course provides participants with fundamentals on where cognitive interviews fit in the survey process and on how to design, conduct, and analyze cognitive interviews. Participants will have the opportunity to practice specific cognitive interviewing techniques, including think-alouds, probing, and observation. Participants will also learn about revising survey questions based on interpreting cognitive interview results and about the research on which cognitive interview practices are based.
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.
10th Annual UNC Oliver Smithies Nobel Symposium: featuring Jennifer Doudna, PhD
The 10th Annual UNC Oliver Smithies Nobel Symposium is excited to feature Jennifer Doudna, PhD, the 2020 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, as this year's distinguished speaker. Doudna is renowned for her groundbreaking work in characterizing and developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system, a revolutionary technology transforming fields ranging from agriculture to medicine. She is currently a Distinguished HHMI Investigator at UC Berkeley, a director at the Innovative Genomics Institute, and a co-founder of Mammoth Biosciences, which develops CRISPR-based diagnostics and therapeutics.
The Oliver Smithies Nobel Laureate Symposium is an annual event which invites prominent Nobel Laureates to share their stories, groundbreaking work, and highlight the experiences and driving forces that led to their success. This year, Doudna will present her talk titled CRISPR-powered gene editing for human and planet health.
This is a unique opportunity to hear from one of the leading scientists of our time and learn about cutting-edge research that is shaping the future of healthcare and beyond. Join us for an inspiring lecture with Jennifer Doudna, PhD, as she shares her remarkable journey to the Nobel Prize! There will be a reception with light refreshments to follow.
Event Location: UNC Medical Biomolecular Research Building (MBRB), Room 2204
This course will be split over 2 days (4/8/26 and 4/10/26) and is offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.
Research relies on increasingly complex code. However, most academics have not received formal training in software development. This course will introduce participants to some of the best practices of professional software development. Participants will learn to structure their Python code into reusable functions and store those functions as separate scripts and/or packages. Participants will learn to write automated tests for their functions, to help confirm that results are as expected and to ensure that future changes to code do not cause unexpected changes to results.
We will also discuss how to create reproducible “environments” that record package versions in use to help avoid package version incompatibilities and ensure that results can be replicated even months or years after the original analysis.
Modular design is best paired with a version control system. We will discuss how modular design practices integrate with Git and Github, and how to set up “continuous integration” so that automated tests are run each time code is changed.
The course will primarily consist of a hands-on exercise to restructure a single long analysis file into functions and automated tests.
Conversations that take place online – from learning management systems to Signal chats to Discord groups to Reddit support groups and Instagram influencing – can be valuable forms of evidence for qualitative researchers.
In this workshop, participants will create their own research designs to investigate a phenomenon of interest, as evidenced through social media data, in a systematic and rigorous way. The Paulus and Wise research design decision framework will scaffold learners in how to identify an object of interest; articulate their philosophical and theoretical assumptions about how language functions online; create focused and relevant research questions; ensure methodological alignment across aspects of the study design; resolve ethical dilemmas around treating social media as data; extract and transform social media into a coherent dataset; select appropriate technologies for managing and analyzing data; perform a systematic narrative, discourse and/or thematic analysis; and establish the quality of the findings.
Course material will be drawn from Looking for Learning, Insight and Transformation in Online Talk (Paulus & Wise, Routledge, 2019).
This course will be split over 2 days (4/8/26 and 4/10/26) and is offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.
Research relies on increasingly complex code. However, most academics have not received formal training in software development. This course will introduce participants to some of the best practices of professional software development. Participants will learn to structure their Python code into reusable functions and store those functions as separate scripts and/or packages. Participants will learn to write automated tests for their functions, to help confirm that results are as expected and to ensure that future changes to code do not cause unexpected changes to results.
We will also discuss how to create reproducible “environments” that record package versions in use to help avoid package version incompatibilities and ensure that results can be replicated even months or years after the original analysis.
Modular design is best paired with a version control system. We will discuss how modular design practices integrate with Git and Github, and how to set up “continuous integration” so that automated tests are run each time code is changed.
The course will primarily consist of a hands-on exercise to restructure a single long analysis file into functions and automated tests.
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.
Working With STAR CRN & PCORnet
Breakout Sessions
Interactive Networking & Collaboration Opportunites
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!
PCORnet is the national research network funded by PCORI, and includes over 75 health systems with standardized electronic health record data on over 45 million patients seen in the past year, and over 100 million patients with records since 2010. The network can support patient-centered research, including clinical trials, cohort studies, and secondary data analyses. The STAR CRN includes 9 major health systems and electronic health records on over 25 million patients across the country.
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 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.
“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!
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.
“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!
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.
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.
For more information about the I-Corps Program, visit KickStart Venture Services.
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.
For more information about the I-Corps Program, visit KickStart Venture Services.