[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]A new research institute will be established on the west side of the University of Wisconsin campus, the university announced Wednesday.

A collaboration of four schools within the university, the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is located within the Health Sciences Learning Center on Highland Avenue.

The institute will engage in various health research projects, as well as help UW scientists secure grants and budgets.

The plan for the institute was developed by its director, Marc Drezner, associate dean for clinical and translational research at the School of Medicine and Public Health, and his team.

ICTR Associate Director Christine Sorkness said the collaboration between the four schools — the School of Medicine, School of Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine, School of Nursing, and College of Engineering — and the Marshfield Clinic, was an important aspect of the ICTR.

"The exciting part is that this is an institute that is endorsed and sponsored by … major academic institutions on our campus," Sorkness said.

Sorkness, a professor and clinical researcher at the UW School of Pharmacy, said the additional partnership with the Marshfield Clinic will help the institute accomplish one of its main goals: Apply lab research to increase the well-being of the population.

The ICTR, Drezner said, would strive to improve the performance of clinical research, enabling discoveries that can be translated to the good of the general public in the future.

"I think what we're finding on a nationwide basis … is that clinical research is becoming ever more important," Drezner said.

Currently, the ICTR is funded through the National Institutes of Health.

However, Drezner and his team submitted a grant application earlier this year for the $65 million Clinical Translational Science Award. The outcome of its application for the five-year grant will not be known until this summer.

If the funding is secured, it will be made available in September. However, if the application is rejected, Drezner and his team would need to reapply again.

One of the requirements of this grant, Sorkness said, is to have an appropriate place where the funding could be used — like the ICTR.

"That became the idea of the foundation for the ICTR," Sorkness said.

The ICTR, Sorkness said, is used as a rallying point for all the schools involved in the institute.

The planners of the ICTR hope to house training programs, research programs and possibly even a new graduate program in clinical investigation.

According to Drezner, it is a small "home base" for research supported by the institute that will take place in various areas across the state.

Drezner also predicted a partnership with UW affiliates at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Aurora organization.

These partnerships, along with the already strong partnership with Marshfield Clinic, Sorkness said, are important to the focus of the ICTR and its goal of serving the broadest population possible.

"One of the missions of our grant is to make sure that much of our translational research crosses gender, ethnic and age population groups," Sorkness said. "It is important as we bring things through from research that we're able to bring this forward [to everyone]."