Clinical and Translational Science (CTS) Certificate Program

The Certificate Program in Clinical Research requires a minimum of 12 Credits. It is expected that a minimum of six months will be devoted to research. A publishable manuscript of the research project will be required for completion.

Didactic Requirement

Any certificate student thinking of transferring to the Master's Program should also register for CTSC 5601 Utilizing Statistics in Clinical Research (1cr).

Research Requirement

Certificate Manuscript - The manuscript summarizes the results of a research project that may be a part of the mentor's larger research endeavor or an original question of the candidate. The manuscript is not as comprehensive as a thesis as the word count is usually limited by journal requirements. Submission to a journal is not required, however, the manuscript should be submitted to the committee in the same form as it would be submitted to a journal.

Approval of Research proposals:

Research proposals must be approved by the CTSA Postdoctoral Programs Committee. Scholars are required to submit their research proposals to the CTSA Postdoctoral Programs Committee in January of the year following their admission per the following format and documentation:

• Proposal Format - Certificate proposals should follow the Mayo Graduate School’s “Outline for Master's Thesis Protocol.”
• Proposal Review Criteria - the submitted proposal will be reviewed by the CTSA Postdoctoral Programs Committee for the following criteria:(Please attach appropriate documentation if not included in the protocol.)
  • Defined as Clinical Research (if animal model justify significance to human disease)
  • Scientific Peer-reviewed - demonstrated by minute excerpt from appropriate research committee. If the project is a retrospective chart review, deemed non-therapeutic and minimal risk, and not a part of a larger project, the protocol will need to be assessed for feasibility and sample size by the research committee even though this may not be required by IRB. If proposal is part of a larger project, candidate must provide a copy of the abstract and documentation of scientific peer-review of the larger project, i.e., minute excerpt from appropriate research committee or funding agency.)
  • IRB reviewed - protocol may be submitted with IRB approval pending or identify IRB approval of larger project
  • Authorship - Typically the scholar would hold first author status, or indicate if part of a larger multi-author study.
  • Feasibility
  • Sufficient time to collect data/recruit patients
  • Sufficient funding to complete study
  • Define Patient recruitment plan including timeline
  • Current status - provide information on the current status of the project, e.g., 50% of data is collected and data collection will be completed in X months or 25% of the patients are recruited and patient recruitment will be completed in X months.