Do you want to learn more about the NIH K24 Midcareer Investigator Award? Are you considering applying for a K24? Join NC TraCS for an in-person, interactive panel discussion on the NIH K24 grant mechanism.

The session will cover an overview of the K24 mechanism, eligibility criteria and key components of a competitive application. Following the overview, current and former K24 awardees will share insights from their own journeys — from preparing a successful proposal to implementing the award and balancing mentoring, research, and career development responsibilities. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage directly with panelists.

Panelists will discuss:

• Strategies for crafting a strong K24 application
• Demonstrating impactful mentorship
• Integrating the K24 into an active research program
• Common challenges and lessons learned
• Advice for prospective applicants

Opening speaker:
Nicholas Shaheen, MD, MPH

Panelists:
Ben Chi, MD, MSC
Matthew Laughon, MD, MPH
Amanda Nelson, MD, MSCR, RhMSUS

This is an in-person event held in room 219 of the Brinkhous-Bullitt Bldg. in the NC TraCS Suite on the second floor.

register

The Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Pilot Program at NC TraCS is now accepting applications for our CTS Pilot Awards. These awards support projects that advance translational science—the field focused on understanding the scientific and operational principles that underlie each step of the translational process—with up to $50,000 in direct costs for a period of one year.

NC TraCS is holding information sessions via Zoom for investigators interested in learning more about this funding opportunity. Topics covered during the session include:

• What is Translational Science as distinct from Translational Research?
• Application procedure, including required application components, important dates and contact information
• Program-specific grantsmanship tips
• Q&A

Presenters
David Peden, MD, MS
Director, CTS Pilot Program
NC TraCS Institute

David Carroll, PhD
Director, Research Funding Development
NC TraCS Institute

Kaitlin Zalcikova, PhD
Program Manager, CTS Pilot Program
NC TraCS Institute

register

Engagement in Research 101: Introduction to Engaging Patient & Community Partners in Research

Are you interested in learning about patient and community engagement and how it can benefit your research? Excited by the idea of engaging patient, community, or other partners in your research, but unsure about where to start? Want to know more about how to engage partners at different points throughout your study?

Engaging with patient and community partners who are impacted by your research can be instrumental to the success of your study. This online training will provide an overview of engagement in research, highlighting that engagement is not "all or nothing" or "one-size-fits-all", but instead encompasses a wide variety of low touch to high touch approaches that could be right for your study.

The session will cover common myths/misconceptions about engagement in research, benefits of and key considerations for engaging patient and community partners in research, and initial steps/existing resources you can leverage to begin engaging partners in your research.

Presenters:
Alicia Bilheimer, MPH - Director of Engaged Science, NC TraCS
Veronica Carlisle, MPH, CHES - Senior Community Health Educator, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC)
Nisha Datta, MS - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Simone Frank, MPH - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Jennifer Potter, MPH, CHES - Senior Program Coordinator for Clinical Outreach, LCCC

Register

Engaging Patient, Community, and Other Partners in Your Research is a multi-part online training series. You may register for the entire series OR any single training session. This training series was developed collaboratively with patient, community, and researcher partners and is co-sponsored by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and NC TraCS Institute.

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.

Register

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).

Register

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.

Register

The Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Pilot Program at NC TraCS is now accepting applications for our CTS Pilot Awards. These awards support projects that advance translational science—the field focused on understanding the scientific and operational principles that underlie each step of the translational process—with up to $50,000 in direct costs for a period of one year.

NC TraCS is holding information sessions via Zoom for investigators interested in learning more about this funding opportunity. Topics covered during the session include:

• What is Translational Science as distinct from Translational Research?
• Application procedure, including required application components, important dates and contact information
• Program-specific grantsmanship tips
• Q&A

Presenters
David Peden, MD, MS
Director, CTS Pilot Program
NC TraCS Institute

David Carroll, PhD
Director, Research Funding Development
NC TraCS Institute

Kaitlin Zalcikova, PhD
Program Manager, CTS Pilot Program
NC TraCS Institute

register

Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute's CTSI Day

The Wake Forest Clinical and Translational Science Institute's CTSI Day is an annual day-long event that brings together researchers, trainees, and partners for workshops, presentations, and collaboration. The day concludes with the Scholar Showcase poster session—a lively and engaging event highlighting a variety of clinical and translational research projects and fostering cross-institutional connections through feedback, discussion, and networking.

Location:
Biotech Place, Atrium and Auditorium
575 Patterson Ave, Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Learn more, view the agenda, and register at ctsi.wakehealth.edu

REGISTER

HOPE: Establishing Oncology Hybrid DCTs Across NC

Join the UNC Network for Research Professionals (NRP) for a hybrid education session on establishing oncology hybrid decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) across North Carolina.

1. Learn the importance of access to clinical trials to the community
2. Understand how hybrid decentralized clinical trials can be compliantly operationalized
3. Understand tools to help patients, providers, and the study team work together on patient management in a hybrid decentralized environment

In-person location: Brinkhous-Bullitt room 219

Register

In this advanced topics course, several common use cases for automations using Qualtrics Workflows will be presented.

Register

Engagement in Research Nuts & Bolts: Specific Approaches for Engaging Patient & Community Partners in Research

There is no "one-size-fits-all" approach to engaging patient, community, or other partners in your research. Rather, there are a variety of engagement methods to suit your study's needs, your research team's capacity, and your partners' interests.

This online training will describe three common approaches for working with patient, community, and other partners in your research: 1) consultative community feedback sessions; 2) advisory boards; and 3) sustained collaboration with partners as members of the research team.

The session will cover considerations for choosing these specific engagement methods, as well as concrete processes and steps for implementing each approach. Participation in our Engagement in Research 101 training is not required to attend this session; however, some knowledge of engagement, whether from prior training(s) or personal experience, may foster deeper understanding of the material in this session.

Presenters:
Alicia Bilheimer, MPH - Director of Engaged Science, NC TraCS
Veronica Carlisle, MPH, CHES - Senior Community Health Educator, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC)
Nisha Datta, MS - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Simone Frank, MPH - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Jennifer Potter, MPH, CHES - Senior Program Coordinator for Clinical Outreach, LCCC

Register

Engaging Patient, Community, and Other Partners in Your Research is a multi-part online training series. You may register for the entire series OR any single training session. This training series was developed collaboratively with patient, community, and researcher partners and is co-sponsored by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and NC TraCS Institute.

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..

Register

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!

Register

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

REGISTER

Statistical Planning for NIH-Style Grant Proposals

The Biostatistics Service of NC TraCS is hosting a special seminar for investigators considering submitting NIH grant applications in an upcoming application cycle. This session provides a practical guide to designing and describing statistical analysis plans in NIH-style proposals. No deep statistical background is required.

Participants will learn how reviewers evaluate analytic sections, how to work effectively with biostatisticians, and how to justify power and analytic decisions in ways that strengthen the overall proposal. The session highlights common pitfalls and offers clear strategies for aligning study aims, design, analysis, and sample size to produce proposals that are both rigorous and persuasive.

Please note: This event will not be recorded. Materials such as slides or handouts will be shared with documented attendees only.

Presenter:
Marcy Boynton, PhD
Biostatistician, NC TraCS Institute
Assistant Professor, Division of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology
UNC School of Medicine

Register

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.

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

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

Healthcare AI

Join the TraCS Data Science Lab as we talk about the experience of implementing healthcare AI. Healthcare AI is generating unprecedented investment and regulatory momentum — yet the vast majority of AI pilots never reach frontline care.

This seminar cuts through the hype to examine why, tracing the full clinical AI deployment pipeline from model development through post-deployment monitoring and the overlooked governance, workflow, and implementation challenges that derail efforts. Using real-world case studies — including the widely-deployed Epic Sepsis Model — we'll explore how dataset shift, alert fatigue, and clinician behavior consistently outweigh algorithmic performance as barriers to impact.

Whether you're a clinician, informaticist, or health system leader, this talk will reframe how you think about AI in medicine: the future won't be decided by better models, but by better implementation.

Speaker:
David Friedlander, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor, Department of Urology
TDSL Faculty Scholar, TraCS Data Science Lab
UNC School of Medicine

register

Seminars in the NC TraCS Data Science Lab Seminar Series cover a range of topics related to health care data science, clinical data, data engineering, and working in these areas at UNC-Chapel Hill. These hybrid seminars are usually held monthly on the third Tuesday of each month from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in the NC TraCS suite on the 2nd floor of Brinkhous-Bullitt or via Zoom.

Strengthening Engagement in Research: Building and Maintaining Relationships with Patient & Community Partners

Meaningful partnerships with patients, community members, or other collaborators involved in your research are invaluable. Projects are set up for success when care is intentionally given to developing and strengthening partnerships over time.

This online training will describe best practices for building mutually beneficial partnerships. The session will also cover common challenges that researchers and patient, community, and other partners experience when working together, along with suggested solutions.

Participation in our Engagement in Research 101 or Engagement in Research Nuts and Bolts trainings are not required to attend this session; however, some knowledge of engagement, whether from prior training(s) or personal experience, may foster deeper understanding of the material in this session.

Presenters:
Alicia Bilheimer, MPH - Director of Engaged Science, NC TraCS
Veronica Carlisle, MPH, CHES - Senior Community Health Educator, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center (LCCC)
Nisha Datta, MS - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Simone Frank, MPH - Senior Project Manager, NC TraCS
Jennifer Potter, MPH, CHES - Senior Program Coordinator for Clinical Outreach, LCCC
Members of the NC TraCS Community and Patient Advisory Board and the UNC Lineberger Community Advisory Board

Register

Engaging Patient, Community, and Other Partners in Your Research is a multi-part online training series. You may register for the entire series OR any single training session. This training series was developed collaboratively with patient, community, and researcher partners and is co-sponsored by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and NC TraCS Institute.

“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

Join us for an in-person workshop to learn more about AI workflows for data science with clinical applications. Large language models have rapidly moved from novelty to everyday use in teaching, research, software development, and data analysis. This workshop offers a practical framework for understanding and using modern AI systems by distinguishing among standalone large language models, chat agents, and full agents that connect models to tools and execution environments.

In this workshop, you will learn:

• Key principles that shape successful outcomes in practice
• Best practices for working effectively with chat agents
• How agents can support each phase of the data science lifecycle
• How to run agents securely and responsibly

Workshop location: Brinkhous-Bullitt Bldg., 2nd floor, room 219

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.