The R01 funding mechanism may be the cornerstone of America’s biomedical research program, but individual scientists often require informatics and other multidisciplinary team expertise that cannot easily be obtained or developed in the independent research environment.(1) The National Center for Research Resources has stated that the future of biomedical research will involve collaborations by many scientists in diverse locations linked through high-speed computer networks that enable submission, analysis, and sharing of data.(2) However, the need to collect and share data in a secure manner with numerous collaborators across academic departments or even institutions is a formidable challenge. This manuscript presents a metadata-driven software application and novel metadata-gathering workflow used to successfully support translational research projects in the academic research environment. REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) was initially developed and deployed at Vanderbilt University, but now has collaborative support from a wide consortium of domestic and international partners.
