October 2022
Issue 1
Letter From the President
I want to devote this month’s letter to the importance of belonging—something I have been thinking about a lot lately. In our professional careers, a sense of belonging is vitally important because it is associated with being happy, and being physical and mentally healthy. It is also what makes us feel relevant and needed. We all need to feel a connection with our co-workers and colleagues. With the important Diversity, Equity and Inclusion focus, there have been other issues that people want to focus on as well, such as justice and access. Not many initiatives have included belonging—or as some define it, an affinity for a place or situation. Even under the best of circumstances when there is diversity of thought and populations, or equitable protocols, or when people believe they are being inclusive, there can be a low sense of belonging.
ACTS is being intentional in wanting to be the association where you feel you belong. Associations are groups of people who organize for a similar purpose. Ours is organized around clinical and translational science. However, some of us do pre-clinical studies, some see patients, some conduct clinical trials, some are involved in community-engaged research; some of us are staff members who facilitate or lead studies. Whether we are investigators or staff or participants, and whether we are seniors who have been around a while, or mid-career or junior, or brand new, we all want to feel this sense that we belong.
Our organization’s intentionality to foster belongingness begins with our SIGs—Special Interest Groups. These groups offer people the opportunity to work with others in a similar field of clinical research and translational science. SIGs connect people who share similar goals and interests, and provide them a channel to network and participate in knowledge and resource sharing among peers. ACTS has ten SIGs: 1) Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD), 2) Clinical Research Professional Taskforce, 3) Evaluation, 4) Informatics, 5) Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI), 6) Partners for the Advancement of Community Engaged Research (PACER), 7) Regulatory Science, 8) Research Education Professionals, 9) Research Operation and Administration and 10) Scholar. You can learn all about these groups here.
We want each of you to feel valued, needed and connected. Our hope is that you will check out these SIGS, join one of them, and feel a strong sense of belonging to the ACTS family.
Linda B. Cottler, PhD, MPH, FACE
ACTS President
Translational Science 2023: Call For Submissions
Translational Science: Innovating Translational Science For Research is now accepting scientific session and poster proposals! Don't miss your chance to make a big impact on clinical and translational research.
Scientific session proposals are due Monday, October 24 and poster proposals are due Monday, November 14. Please visit our website to learn more about the submissions portal, best practices, and more. We look forward to receiving your scientific session ideas and posters submissions!
News From the Hill: September 26, 2022
Congress is working swiftly to enact a continuing appropriations resolution (CR) before the October 1st start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 (and before adjourning to campaign throughout October). Lawmakers plan to use the additional time allowed by the CR to finalize the FY 2023 appropriations bills, likely moving to pass any bill(s) during the “Lame Duck” session following the November elections. The CR is expected to be light on policy riders, and while it should include supplement emergency funding for Ukraine, it is not expected to include additional requested funding for the ongoing COVID response.
Read more on the ACTS Advocacy page.
Journal of Clinical and Translational Science: The Official Journal of ACTS and CR Forum
- Gold Open Access: fully compliant with Open Access Mandates
- Articles funded by the NIH will be manually sent to PubMed Central
- Articles appear with their final citation details as soon as they are published online
- Prestigious editorial board listing
- Global dissemination of your paper
- Metrics, Altmetrics and Kudos to monitor submissions
Want to receive alerts when new articles are published? Click the 'Add Alert' (🔔) icon here, then login or register for a Cambridge Core account to receive daily, weekly, or monthly updates.
Member Highlights
Do you know someone who deserves to be recognized for outstanding or groundbreaking work? Is your institution embarking on an exciting project? Send ACTS your story to be highlighted in future versions of ACTS Connection.
Submit stories here.
Career Center
The ACTS Career Center is the premier resource for connecting those in the field of translational science with career opportunities. Visit today to find a wealth of resources to help achieve your career goals.
ACTS members receive a 50% discount on the site—use code ACTSMEMBER to save!
Translational Science Today
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