Source: SYSU-JHU Collaboration Program
Written by: Chen Jingxue, Li Liying
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On December 4-8, 2014, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) delegation visited Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) again for a 5-day local training program, teaching Clinical Investigator course, Clinical Coordinator course, Research Financial course as well as Advanced Principal Investigator course. In addition to the educational training, representatives on both sides also held extensive consultations and meetings about the working plan for Phase II collaboration. 

The local training program kicked off on December 4. Receiving positive feedback from previous trainees, the five-day intensive training program was mainly targeting at participants who excelled in the antecedent online courses. All the courses included both lectures and group discussions. Besides, this time JHU trainers taught newly designed short-term Research Financial course and Advanced Principal Investigator course to over 30 research financial executives and 50 senior clinical researchers respectively.

During the training, representatives from both universities also conducted interviews to select visiting scholars to JHU in 2015. In Phase II collaboration, SYSU will continue to send outstanding clinical researchers, research administrators and research relevant faculty and staff to JHU for professional clinical research training, which is an important way for personnel development for SYSU clinical research.

The collaboration program has been implemented for more than one year, and JHU has finished the clinical research infrastructure assessment for SYSU and submitted the corresponding assessment report. Based on the report, SYSU will further improve the Phase II collaboration plan and the construction of International Clinical and Translational Research Center (ICTR). During JHU delegation’s visiti, both sides had heated discussion on the current achievements, working plan and future challenges from the aspects of scholar cultivation, IRB, research integrity, clinical research education, ICTR construction, etc. Both universities agreed that, Phase I collaboration is quite successful and the next phase will focus on establishing an international standardized Clinical and Translational Research center to strengthen its function of human resources development, project management and research project collaboration.

In addition, the visiting scholars who have been trained in JHU in previous section spontaneously organized a SYSU Clinical Research Salon and held the launch ceremony on December 6. SYSU Vice president Li Mengfeng and workgroup members from SYSU and JHU attended the event. In the first salon the agenda included individual experience sharing and research presentation. The salon will be held every month focusing on topics in clinical research and is open to the faculty and students in SYSU.

Since SYSU and JHU signed Phase I Collaboration Agreement, the two universities have held many academic activities during the past two years. Currently, the two universities are working on the details of Phase II collaboration Agreement, which is scheduled to be signed in January 2015.