Join a live training session for the N3C Data Enclave. Users of all types can learn how to navigate the N3C, utilize the Enclave and resources it provides, and learn how to better achieve their analytical goals. This orientation is split into 2 sessions – Session A and Session B. These orientations are ongoing and will alternate week by week. Session A is recommended before attending Session B

Session B is for analysts, statisticians, data scientists, or anyone who wants to gain a broader understanding of the tools needed to work with the data.

Topics include:

• Focus on technical aspects of working with data in the secure N3C Enclave, including use of OMOP concept sets and N3C-specific tooling, such as the Concept Set Browser.
• Introduce commonly used analysis tools, such as Contour and Code Workbooks and corresponding workflows for simple analyses.
• Introduce the Enclave Knowledge Store, a mechanism for sharing and using community-developed code and data across projects.

Note: This orientation is held alternating Tuesdays | 8-9:30am PT/11am-12:30pm ET

Register

The Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) groups at Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest are all supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award and have teamed together to share educational and training materials. The following seminar will be shared across all three institutions for Fall 2021.

This introductory-level session will provide an overview of the fundamental observational study designs used in clinical and epidemiological research.

Level/audience: Clinical and translational researchers who have basic quantitative training in biostatistical methods

Presenter: 
Mike Bancks, MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Prevention
Wake Forest School of Medicine

Register

Biomedical researchers often want to answer causal questions, but they often have access to observational data, not clinical trials. In this session of the TraCS Biostatistics Seminar series, you’ll learn why causal inference is difficult with observational data and what can be done to allow for valid causal inferences if you have observational data.

Presenter: Michael Hudgens, PhD
Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Biostatistics
Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill

Register

This is a two-part course in phlebotomy for research brought to you by the NC TraCS RCMU and CTRC. The goal of the course is to provide the necessary education and experience clinical research staff may need to complete blood draws for clinical research protocols. The course will consist of lecture, an exam, and hands-on learning. To successfully complete the course you must attend both sessions, pass the exam, and successfully complete three supervised blood draws.

Please note that practice blood draws will be performed on members of the class and all attendees should be prepared and willing to have practice draws performed on themselves. Completion of this course does not result in phlebotomy certification.  Attendees who successfully complete the course will be provided with a certificate of completion to document research phlebotomy training.

Cost:  $115  - Payment method accepted: UNC account funds only (chartfield string)

Sessions: 
Session 1- Friday, October 29th, 09:00am - 2:30pm
Session 2- Friday, November 5th, 11:00am - 3:00pm

Location for both sessions:  NC TraCS, 2nd Floor Brinkhous-Bullitt, Conference Room 219 (note: hands on training will be completed in the afternoon of Day 2 in the CTRC, 1st Floor Burnett-Womack)

Late arrival and No-show Policy - due to the condensed nature of the class we cannot make up missed material resulting from arriving late for class. Therefore, once the class begins there will be a strict no-admittance policy.

Register

Please contact Catherine Barnes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions regarding this training. 

Registration is open for the 2021-2022 TraCS Professional Development Seminar series. This seminar series is aimed at research professionals, graduate students, postdocs and early stage faculty researchers. In this series, we cover foundational skills useful for career development in clinical/translational research.

The TraCS Professional Development Seminar series is split into 4 modules: Finding Funding, Communication Skills, Mentor-Mentee Training, and Rigor and Reproducibility.

Communication Skills

Through the UNC Event Registration system, you will be able to select which sessions you would like to attend. Please note: the Zoom link that you receive upon registration will work for all sessions within the Communication Skills module. Each session will be held in-person and/or via Zoom on Fridays.

Register

Benefits of Stroke Treatment Delivered Using a Mobile Stroke Unit Compared to Standard Management by Emergency Medical Services: The BEST-MSU Study

This NIH Collaboratory Rethinking Clinical Trials Grand Rounds features: James C Grotta, MD, Director Stroke Research and Mobile Stroke Unit, Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center, Houston, Texas

Learn More

Orientation for New Clinical Research Personnel is returning for Fall 2021 with an updated curriculum! The curriculum is designed to be a true orientation for new research personnel (either new to UNC or new to research altogether), but anyone is welcome to attend. The orientation will be held via Zoom on November 9 and 10, from 1-3:00 p.m. Topics covered in the orientation will include:

- The Research Landscape at UNC Chapel Hill
- The Research Study Life Cycle and Different Types of Research Studies
- Good Clinical Practice
- Overview of Research Regulations and Research Processes
- Overview of Research Roles and Responsibilities
- Informed Consent

Register

Please contact Catherine Barnes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions regarding this training. 

The Department of Allied Health Research is hosting a forum on November 10 from 12-1:00 p.m. to discuss research perseverance while embracing change in a pandemic.

Presenter: Debara L. Tucci, MD, MS, MBA.

- Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health
- Leads the institute’s research and research training programs in hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language
- Recognized as a pioneer in her work to understand the causes and impact of hearing loss and to develop treatments to restore hearing
- Previously on the faculty of Duke University Medical Center, where she co-founded the Duke Hearing Center and directed Duke’s cochlear implant program

Register

Orientation for New Clinical Research Personnel is returning for Fall 2021 with an updated curriculum! The curriculum is designed to be a true orientation for new research personnel (either new to UNC or new to research altogether), but anyone is welcome to attend. The orientation will be held via Zoom on November 9 and 10, from 1-3:00 p.m. Topics covered in the orientation will include:

- The Research Landscape at UNC Chapel Hill
- The Research Study Life Cycle and Different Types of Research Studies
- Good Clinical Practice
- Overview of Research Regulations and Research Processes
- Overview of Research Roles and Responsibilities
- Informed Consent

Register

Please contact Catherine Barnes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions regarding this training. 

Mental Health Informatics to Enable a Learning Mental Healthcare System: From Precision Psychiatry to Population Health

Presenter: Dr. Jessica D. Tenenbaum, PhD, Duke University and NC Department of Health and Human Services.

Followed by Early Career Presentations by:
Adrienne Aiken Morgan, PhD, Clinical Geropsychologist, Assistant Professor
Justin Riddle, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Psychiatry, Scientific Director, Carolina Center for Neurostimulation
Danielle W. Lowe, MD, PhD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow PGY-4.

For more information, contact the Psychiatry Chair's Office or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Zoom Meeting

Location: Polk Place (In front of Wilson Library)

Not your typical college career fair, this session is open to startups located in the piedmont area of North Carolina – and all UNC-Chapel Hill and Central Carolina Community College students. Startup founders will be given the opportunity to pitch their company, their open positions, and why you should work for them.

As a student, you’ll have the chance to talk directly with startups that are looking to meet students who have innovative minds, a passion for problem-solving, computer science and other technical skills, and an entrepreneurial spirit. If you’re searching for an internship, a potential job, or opportunities to simply learn what entrepreneurship is all about, this session is a chance to jumpstart your professional journey. This event is casual and informal.

Get tickets

For more information, go to Carolina Startup Connect 2021 Series. For questions about the event, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

NIH's mission is to advance ideas from fundamental biological science all the way to applied healthcare cures. While many of us see our research along that spectrum, understanding how to translate our research across the spectrum is a challenge.

In this session, we will discuss NIH's various models for translational biomedical research, some common challenges researchers face in advancing their research, and how to describe your research to resonate with NIH’s translational frameworks. Additionally, we will share information and examples of how NC TraCS can help basic scientists connect with clinically oriented investigators to move scientific ideas across the translational science spectrum.

Presenter: David Carroll, PhD
Director, Research Funding Development
Chair, TraCS $2K Pilot Grant Review Committee
NC TraCS Institute – Proposal Development Service
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Register here to receive an appointment with zoom details.

If you have any questions, or issues with the registration form, please contact Molly Puente (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

How do you want to engage with research? Research for Me @UNC and the NC TraCS Institute offer engagement and development opportunities for all stages of the research process. Want to participate in research? Want to learn more about protocol development, funding opportunities, community engagement, or the regulatory landscape? Need help with how to best conduct your own research? We’ve got you covered.

Presenter: Emily Olsson, CCRP

Zoom

Registration is open for the 2021-2022 TraCS Professional Development Seminar series. This seminar series is aimed at research professionals, graduate students, postdocs and early stage faculty researchers. In this series, we cover foundational skills useful for career development in clinical/translational research.

The TraCS Professional Development Seminar series is split into 4 modules: Finding Funding, Communication Skills, Mentor-Mentee Training, and Rigor and Reproducibility.

Communication Skills

Through the UNC Event Registration system, you will be able to select which sessions you would like to attend. Please note: the Zoom link that you receive upon registration will work for all sessions within the Communication Skills module. Each session will be held in-person and/or via Zoom on Fridays.

Register

Using Financial Incentives to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake

This NIH Collaboratory Rethinking Clinical Trials Grand Rounds features:

Charlene Wong, MD MSHP
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Policy
Duke University School of Medicine
Chief Health Policy Officer for COVID-19
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

Noel T. Brewer, PhD
Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health
Department of Health Behavior
Gillings School of Global Public Health
University of North Carolina
Member, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
University of North Carolina

Learn More

Introducing CLARK 2.0

CLARK 2.0 is a user friendly machine-learning classifier designed to answer a variety of translational research questions. This version of CLARK offers a new interface with additional features including the ability to analyze data based on both structured and unstructured data.

How can CLARK support my research?

CLARK is designed to supplement human effort and judgment in order to reduce time spent doing chart review, produce more robust computable phenotypes, and move studies to recruitment and/or data analysis faster. It can help to identify patient cohorts for a study when inclusion/exclusion criteria are framed as a classification problem.

In this session, we will:
- Discuss use cases ideal for CLARK
- Discuss the FHIR data formats required by CLARK
- Walk through the process for requesting data from TraCS and CDWH
- Provide an overview of how to write regular expressions, which are a core component of using CLARK
- Demonstrate using the new CLARK interface 

Register

The Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) groups at Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest are all supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award and have teamed together to share educational and training materials. The following seminar will be shared across all three institutions for Fall 2021.

The goal of this session is to provide a balance of beginner and intermediate-level skills and resources (both general and local) for researchers when undertaking a literature review.

Level/audience: Clinical and translational researchers

Presenter: 
Brandy W. Hardy
Acquisitions and e-Resource Librarian
Wake Forest School of Medicine

Register

Research for Me continues to normalize research, break down barriers, and make it easier for people to engage with research, but we know there may still be questions about how it works. Join the Research for Me team for a Town Hall on November 17 from 12-1 p.m. to share your thoughts! Please submit your questions in advance to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Presenter: Emily Olsson, CCRP

Zoom

The TraCS Research Recruitment & Retention Program offers Drop-in Office Hours every third Wednesday. Get quick answers to your recruitment questions via Zoom. Our recruitment specialists can help answer brief questions, review documents, or provide resources. 

Whether you need recruitment troubleshooting, have questions about MyChart, or help designing a flyer, drop-in and we can help get things started!

Zoom

Real World Evidence in the COVID Era: Pfizer's vaccine approval for children

Join the NC TraCS Comparative Effectiveness Research team and guest expert Cindy Gay, MD, MPH, to review and discuss the now available data on the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in children ages 5 - 11.

Reference materials for this discussion:
Pfizer briefing document for Advisory Committee meeting: https://www.fda.gov/media/153409/download
FDA benefit and risk analysis: https://www.fda.gov/media/153447/download

Discussion Leaders

Michele Jonsson-Funk, PhD, Associate Professor
Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health

Cindy Gay, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Medical Director of UNC HIV Cure Center

Sara Dejene, PhD Candidate
Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health

Register

Registration is open for the 2021-2022 TraCS Professional Development Seminar series. This seminar series is aimed at research professionals, graduate students, postdocs and early stage faculty researchers. In this series, we cover foundational skills useful for career development in clinical/translational research.

The TraCS Professional Development Seminar series is split into 4 modules: Finding Funding, Communication Skills, Mentor-Mentee Training, and Rigor and Reproducibility.

Communication Skills

Through the UNC Event Registration system, you will be able to select which sessions you would like to attend. Please note: the Zoom link that you receive upon registration will work for all sessions within the Communication Skills module. Each session will be held in-person and/or via Zoom on Fridays.

Register

Exploring Approaches in Using Digital and Mobile Health in Patient-oriented Research: Pearls and Pitfalls

This NIH Collaboratory Rethinking Clinical Trials Grand Rounds features: Anish K. Agarwal MD, MPH MS, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Clinical Innovation Manager, Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine

Learn More

Languishing vs Flourishing: A Compassionate Community Dialogue About Personal Well-Being

In this interactive session, well-being scholar/practitioner Dr. Suzie Carmack of George Mason University's Center for the Advancement of Well-Being will facilitate a knowledge sharing session on realistic work/life well-being solutions -- with a particular focus on sharing the science of compassion and the quadratic model of well-being (Eisel, 2020).

In the first half of the session, Dr. Carmack will share a high-level summary of the latest compassion research, and will then facilitate a discussion in which participants compassionately explore their current well-being status along the languishing-flourishing continuum. Then, Dr. Carmack will coach participants through the process of actively taking an evidence-informed approach to creating a personal action plan based on their current vs. desired state of well-being. Participants will leave the session having had the opportunity to share and receive support for their well-being, and having practiced several well-being micro-interventions (practices). Participants will also receive access to Dr. Carmack's follow-up resources for continued well-being that can be used for personal use and/or shared with their teams.

Objectives:
-Understand the mental health continuum of languishing-flourishing and struggle-surrender
-Experience the support of a board-certified health and wellness coach in self-identifying current well-being status and setting of SMART goals
-Evaluate one's own personal and current state of languishing vs. flourishing and struggle vs. surrender
-Select the most efficacious well-being micro-practice based on one's own personal self-assessment
-Create a personal plan of action for continuing a personal quest for optimal well-being

Register

Join a live training session for the N3C Data Enclave. Users of all types can learn how to navigate the N3C, utilize the Enclave and resources it provides, and learn how to better achieve their analytical goals. This orientation is split into 2 sessions – Session A and Session B. These orientations are offered on a monthly basis. Session A is recommended before attending Session B.

Session A is for those who want to learn about N3C, as well as how to engage with project teams and access the data.

Topics include:

• Provide a general overview of N3C, including goals, organization, and community resources such as Domain Teams and Data Liaisons.
• Introduces the 3 data tiers available and important considerations for research driven by the data harmonization process.
• Discusses resources for training and help, as well as the Data Use Request (DUR) process required for researcher access.

Register

Grand Rounds: Neutralizing Antibody Suppression: Overcoming a natural barrier to viral vectored gene therapies

Guest Speaker: Charlie Askew, Post Doctoral Fellow, UNC Gene Therapy Center.

Please join us for the Inaugural TL1 Grand Rounds hosted by the TL1 Visiting Scientist Working Program, UNC School of Medicine, and UC Davis School of Medicine.

Presentation: 12:00-12:45 pm
Meet and Greet: 4:00-4:30 pm

Zoom Meeting