Leadership | Competition among Implementing Partners (IPs) | Developed a clear vision for NISA-MIRCs Separated research from programs and had a commitment from the core research team at CTAIR not to compete for program grants Created a governance structure agreed to and trusted by the IPs. There is an independent chair of the NISA Board of Trustees who is not part of any of the IPs
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Funding | Sustainability | To ensure long-term sustainability, we intentionally decided to seek direct local support at the beginning rather than external funding NISA, CTAIR and HSF provided support for a 3-person research administration team who work on this project full time The 21 data clerks at each facility are supported by NISA
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Infrastructure | Lack of basic infrastructure to support research (e.g., database, cloud storage, tablets) | Tablets were provided to all the 21 sites for data collection A doctoral student (EE) helped build the REDCap database during his internship with NISA Emails created for all core research team members for more secure communication and log-in to project database
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Training | Deficits in research capacity | Identified individuals with commitment to research and built transdisciplinary collaborations Four-hour remote research meeting every week for the team of investigators Training on ethics and good clinical practice for the data clerks
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Government Engagement | Government support for research | Letter from the government to engage the hospital leadership at the 21 sites Commitment from the 21 sites to accept the single national IRB for research and clinical trials Government involvement was instrumental in building needed confidence in the process of establishing the NISA-MIRCs
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