History

The University has a strong history of investment in centralized resources for clinical and translational research, including the creation of the Center for Clinical Investigation and Therapeutics (CCIT) 1998 by the head of the UM Health System and faculty leaders. CCIT became the Center for the Advancement of Clinical Research (CACR) in 2002, after the recruitment of Dr. Daniel Clauw as its director. Through continued institutional support and a strong track record of success, the Center grew from an original staff of 5 to 43 in 2006.

The CACR provided many of the resources envisioned for the University’s CTSA grant proposal, such as study design consultation, statistics, education, regulatory support, project management, data management, and informatics support. It was designed to complement UM's very strong GCRC, K30, and K12 programs, and provide UM Medical School investigators a cadre of services that would help stimulate investigator-initiated research. However, because CACR was a Medical School unit, University still was not optimally organized to accelerate the pace of biomedical discovery and improve health. The strong University programs aimed at stimulating research were neither fully integrated with each other, nor truly trans-institutional in their scope and governance.

Spurred by the initial CTSA RFA, a University-wide process began in October 2005 to plan a centralized resource to transform translational research at Michigan. This process involved more than 200 faculty and top University leadership and culminated in the creation of the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR), approved by the Regents of the University in November 2006, and the allocation of significant new institutional commitments to expand existing programs and create and integrate new ones.

The new institute maximizes the synergies already underway at Michigan. At Michigan, a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration exists and flourishes in many areas. MICHR allows the University to invest specifically in supporting and promoting this culture of collaboration, integration, and team science, to accelerate the development and application of new research methods, and then apply these discoveries to improve human health.

The second round of the CTSA application in January 2007 was successful, and in September 2007 the NIH notified the University of Michigan that the proposal had been funded. This five-year grant, the third largest NIH award in the University’s history, opened the way to fulfilling the visions that inspired the creation of MICHR: accelerate the rate of biomedical discovery and apply what we know to improve health.