The Avera Research Institute is partnering with South Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine to create a health research center. An $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund the project.
The South Dakota Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research, or SD-ACT, will use each organization's strengths to "train and mentor researchers, support promising studies and build shared research resources across the state," according to a Sept. 21 press release.
The NIH will distribute the grant over five years. The Avera Research Institute is part of Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Avera Health.
Clinical and translational research "connects scientific discoveries with studies in people and communities to improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and healthcare delivery," the release said.
"SD-ACT was built as a partnership from the beginning," Amy Elliott, chief clinical research officer at Avera Research Institute and contact principal investigator for SD-ACT, said in the release. "Each organization brings capabilities that are essential to the center's success. By connecting healthcare, academic research and community perspectives through one statewide structure, we can create research opportunities and infrastructure that no one organization could build alone."
Potential areas of research include diabetes and obesity, cancer prevention and screening, maternal health, mental health and substance use, veterans' health, cognitive health and rural healthcare delivery. SD-ACT will prioritize the needs and perspectives of rural, frontier, American Indian, underserved, and military-connected populations, the release said.
SD-ACT is part of NIH's Institutional Development Award, or IDeA program, which builds research capacity in 23 states and Puerto Rico that have historically received low NIH funding.