Clinical research informatics (CRI) is an evolving field widely recognized as crucial for transforming and reengineering the translational research enterprise [1–3]. Although most institutions recognize the need for growing research informatics support, reductions in grant funding and restricted institutional budgets have diminished the ability of many clinical organizations to hire and retain operations-focused CRI faculty and staff [4,5]. Consequently, limited personnel and resources are stretched to support research needs, forcing sites to restrict programs and services and limit innovation [6–9]. A 2006 initiative of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap for Medical Research introduced the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) to partially address this challenge. The CTSA program incentivizes academic medical centers to evaluate critical needs within and across institutions, propose innovative methods to fill gaps, and ultimately implement collaborative solutions to provide sufficient training and infrastructure enabling scientific teams to design, conduct, and disseminate high-impact research [10–13]. Sharing and leveraging of cross-institutional resources is encouraged by the CTSA program and other cooperative grants [10,14–18].
