UNC Wins Stanley Cup of Research Recruitment

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the third recipient of the MatchMaestro trophy for enrolling the most volunteers through ResearchMatch.org, the national research study recruitment registry that helps match researchers and volunteers.

Last quarter the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute, home of UNC’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA), beat out 76 other participating organizations by enrolling 207 ResearchMatch volunteers into research studies.

A major barrier in the advancement of healthcare is the difficulty in recruiting volunteers for clinical and behavioral studies. On average, it takes the participation of 5,300 study volunteers to obtain the results needed for a new drug application. ResearchMatch.org was developed by the national network of CTSAs to facilitate research recruitment by offering a free and safe way for volunteers to connect with thousands of scientists who are conducting research on a wide range of diseases.

Its MatchMaestro award has been likened to the Stanley Cup by previous award-winning institutions, the University of Rochester and Ohio State. Like them, UNC-CH can only keep the trophy if we continue to post the highest participation numbers on ResearchMatch. If not, we will have to relinquish the trophy at the end of February.

Help keep the MatchMaestro at UNC. If you are a volunteer who would like to register with ResearchMatch.org and participate in research studies, visit ResearchMatch.org.

If you are a researcher at UNC and want to register with ResearchMatch.org, or learn more about using it for feasibility or recruitment access, contact Doreen Steed, NC TraCS Institutional Liaison.