米国にて新しいイノベーションモデル構築に携わる
渡米してから、少しづつ研究の骨格が進みつつあります。もともと渡米してやりたかったtranslational researchの研究について、UCSD内のCTRI (Clinical and Translational Research Institute)と相談しながら、研究プロポーザルをまとめました。このプロポーザルを今全米のtranslational researchの機関に送付し、協力をお願いしています。
トランスレーショナルリサーチとは、基礎研究と応用研究の間のギャップを埋めるための研究。サイエンスの商業化のためのKey Success Factorと言われています。
せっかくのこの貴重なチャンス、ただ現象を分析するような研究ではなくて、どのようなイノベーションシステムの構築に携わっていくのかについても、真剣に取り組もうと思っています。
留学とは、こちらでの知見をただ学んで日本に輸入するというものではなくて、こちらで新しいものを作り出した経験をもとに、日本でも新しいものを作り出していけるように人材になるためのプロセスでありたいと思っています。
日本でもトランスレーショナルリサーチの研究に携わっていらっしゃる方がいればぜひご連絡下さい。日米比較も研究として考えていきたいと思っています。
Mechanism for Assessment and Award for Translational Research
Kanetaka Maki
Ph.D student, Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego
Advisor: Professor Vish Krishnan
Sheryl and Harvey White Endowed Chair, Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego
The CTSA program aims to develop a robust clinical and research infrastructure for translating discoveries into beneficial offerings, replacing traditional silos with integrated research units, and forming collaborative alliances among research institutes, industry, and the larger community.
Critical to achieving the translational goals is the ability to assess and support promising ideas for pilot projects. The mechanism for assessment and award is not fully understood. In fact, the various CTSA participants seem to run their programs for assessment and award very differently. We propose a three-phase project in this research to get a deeper understanding of the mechanism for assessment and award and to identify improved approaches to support and stimulate translational research activities.
The first phase of the proposed project aims to gather more detailed data on how pilot projects are assessed and awarded in the various current CTSA sites. Preliminary observation indicates that the 51 individual sites have different way of managing pilot projects. In this phase, we are looking to collect data on the pilot project proposal and award process to understand the current state of the art in this domain. Survey will include total budget size of pilot projects, budget size for each pilot project categorization / dimension of pilot projects (i.e. basic, translational, or applied), proportion of the different dimensions of pilot projects, and criteria for assessment used by different units.
The second phase of the proposed project aims to identify improved approaches for assessing and awarding pilot projects. We plan to bring prior research in the area of innovation management to bear in identifying these improvements. Some of the questions that will guide our work in this phase are as follows: Does grant size matter for the effectiveness of translational research? Which is more effective: many small grants or few large grants? Prior research indicates that many small grants promote diversity of research fields, which can be applied to basic research. Is this applicable for translational research?
Translational research has characteristics of narrower focused objectives and needs of larger budget size, when compared with basic research. How can we generate rules of thumb on how many and what size grand should be offered? How many metrics should be used and how should these metrics be weighted in the assessment? These questions will help implement improvements in the pilot project selection process.
In a final phase, we plan to examine if a contest approach should be used for selecting pilot projects. Under a contest approach, projects are awarded on prior accomplishments as well as proposed research. Does a contest or award approach work in the area of translational research?
Our goal is to understand how research contests be combined with traditional award to enhance the quality of translational research.
In summary, our goal is to develop a finer, deeper understanding of the translational research assessment and award process. The results from this research can help implement better-designed assessment and award mechanisms to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of future project initiatives.
