Center for Military Medicine Research Charter

Background     

The University of Pittsburgh is a world class research institution with total annual research revenue in excess of $1 billion dollars and an annual impact on the Pennsylvania economy of $5.2 Billion. The university ranks 10th in federal research & development (R&D) funding at US universities and 18th among 195 US universities for creating impact through innovation.  

As a result of the Pittsburgh region’s long and proud association with the U.S. military, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of Health Sciences established in 2012 the Center for Military Medicine Research (CMMR). The aim was to further diversify the university research revenue and expand upon the current military presence and investments in Pittsburgh. Shaped by family tradition and economics, Southwestern Pennsylvania has an unusually large veteran population coupled with an historic industrial might of the region dating from the Civil War through World War II. From Veterans Affairs (VA) data, the density of veteran population per county for the nation averages 6.7% and in southwestern Pennsylvania, the 13-county average was 8.6%. This high concentration of veterans in our region likely reflects the downturn in steel production from the late 1970’s with voluntary service to the military as an employment alternative. As a result, the Pittsburgh region represents a large veteran presence and strong commitment to military and veteran issues which has an impact across industry, academia, and philanthropic organizations.  

Mission 

The CMMR was formally established on June 12, 2012. The mission of the Center is: 

  • Support medical research interests of the DoD and VA 

  • Organize collaborations among investigators at the University of Pittsburgh that meet the medical research needs of the DoD 

  • Promote forward planning of research initiatives in advance of award announcements to enhance the readiness of the University to compete for federal funding 

  • Develop new research themes in collaboration with DoD and VA investigators 

Key Focus Areas 

*  Medical Research 

             Pre-hospital care (Emergency Med, Trauma, Critical Care Med) 

             Vision Restoration (retinal and optic nerve regeneration) 

             Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 

             Pulmonary medicine 

 Education         

Strategic DoD Education and Research Agreements established by CMMR across the Armed Services. CMMR has developed agreements to foster cooperation and teaching between DoD clinicians, academia, and private sector organizations.  

*  Community Engagement          

CMMR, in conjunction with the VA Pittsburgh, community-based organizations and philanthropic organizations, has engaged in many collaborations and partnerships to benefit the greater Pittsburgh community.           

Organization and Reporting Relationships 

CMMR is led by a director with support from 2 full time and 4 part time staff. The Director reports directly to the Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. 

To ensure communication and coordination in forming partnerships and collaborations, the CMMR Director will meet biannually with the six Deans of the Schools of Health Sciences: Medicine, Dental Medicine, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Pharmacy, Nursing, and Public Health. Such meetings are intended to provide two-way communications to the Deans on DoD/VA research funding opportunities and sharing of a school’s research capabilities and innovations of potential interest to the DoD/VA. 

Collaborations with the executive leadership team of the University is vital to CMMR’s mission success. Interface with the Vice Chancellor for Research, Vice Chancellor Research Computing, Vice Chancellor for Science Policy and Research Strategies, Vice Chancellor for Research Infrastructure, Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Vice Chancellor for Sponsored Programs and Research Operations, Vice Chancellor for Research Protection, Assistant Vice Chancellor for STEM Health Sciences Collaboration, and the Clinical Translational Science Institute will be essential.  

Although not compensated through salary support, CMMR will establish a Faculty Associate Program to broaden its network and support capabilities throughout the University of Pittsburgh campus system and to the extent possible, the five regional campuses. These extended staff members will serve in various capacities, from mentors to junior university faculty for DoD/VA related research and grant submissions to building alliances for DoD/VA related research opportunities.  The CMMR Faculty Associate Program members will be organized and will meet on a regular basis to evaluate CMMR’s activities and provide guidance as needed. Additionally, an External Advisory Council is established to provide similar guidance from community stakeholders. 

CMMR is comprised of a small team, it maintains a flat organizational structure. The Managing Director, Program Manager and Administrative staff all report directly to the Director. All members work together to encourage new ideas, drive innovation to achieve shared goals to enhance readiness of CMMR to compete for DoD/VA funding.   

Budget 

The CMMR will utilize an operating budget consistent with university policies to support logistics, operations, official travel, and outreach activities. These funds will be used primarily to promote activities that will enhance the university’s opportunity to seek significant DoD medical research funding for the University of Pittsburgh. As the engagement activities of CMMR grow and expand, budget authorizations will be reviewed and adjusted, as necessary. Additionally, the Director and Managing Director will work with the Division of Philanthropic and Alumni Engagement (PAE) to support CMMR’s efforts to improve the health and well-being of service members, veterans, and their families. The Director may work to grow the operating budget by securing funding for the CMMR to offset salaries of CMMR personnel through grants from other entities when appropriate. The potential financial support to CMMR personnel from other grant sources will be agreed upon by the grant Principal Investigator at the time of the initial grant submission.   

Staff 

The CMMR will function with a full-time staff of three: (1) Director, (2) Managing Director, and (3) Commercialization/Program Manager.  CMMR will cost share three additional administrative positions with the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. The Director will oversee all activities and establish the strategic goals of the CMMR, guaranteeing the goals align with broader university strategy and objectives. The Managing Director will oversee administrative functions of CMMR, as well as guide and be responsible for facilitating trends in collaborations, partnerships, and programmatic activities of CMMR to insure it achieves its objectives effectively and efficiently. The Commercialization/Program Manager will manage activities in CMMR’s portfolio of projects and research programs with particular focus on providing support for advancement of research for commercialization. In addition to its full-time staff, CMMR currently supports three part-time (i.e., partial salary support) administrative assistant, finance, and part-time /Web Developer. 

The CMMR team will align with all university schools. As activities grow and expand, the Director will consider hiring or contracting additional staff as needed and as the budget allows.  

For their participation in the Faculty Associate Program, members will be eligible to receive travel support and funding from the CMMR in support of DoD/VA-related activities as the CMMR budget allows.  

Facilities 

The CMMR staff are located at 450 Technology Drive, Suite 410, Pittsburgh, PA, 15219. 

Strategic Direction and Impact 

For 10 years CMMR has aligned directly with the university’s mission to improve lives and communities, at every scale, by creating knowledge and leveraging expertise to tackle society’s greatest and most pressing challenges. CMMR has been instrumental in building collaborative multi-disciplinary and multi-organizational research teams to improve the health and well-being of service members, veterans and their families that has led to significant DoD medical research funding for the University of Pittsburgh (nearly $400M from 2012 to2019). CMMR leadership has an ongoing record of accomplishment in support of coordinating, collaborating, and facilitating nationally recognized research for the US Department of Defense. Through these initiatives, CMMR has built a network of researchers, clinicians, project directors, and administrators in partnership with a coordinated national network of academic, industry and government partners 

The following features will play an essential role in CMMR’s organizational growth and development moving forward for the next year. Given guidance from the Dean of the School of Medicine and the Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences to reorganize operational goals, CMMR’s goals and strategies will be defined and reported on a regular basis through collaboration with Deans consistent with university policy. Organizational priorities will be established with associated outcome metrics annually. The world is changing and CMMR leadership has applied their best thinking to the structures, systems and processes they need to compete.  

Strategic Growth Objectives  

Critical to the organizational future strategy for CMMR with the Schools of Health Sciences include the following initiatives to be implemented immediately.  

  • CMMR Standardized Grant Review Process for DoD proposals  

  • Promote to Faculty the process in place to utilize current CMMR contracted staff with prior DoD medical research management experience to assist with proposal preparation, especially important to Faculty with no prior DoD research experience.  

  • Faculty Associate Program – Provide Faculty with strong interest in DoD medical research, opportunities for DoD Faculty exchange programs at DoD medical research labs. Associate will also be encouraged to place graduate and post-doctoral students in DoD labs to foster greater collaborations across the DoD medical research community.  

  • Post-doc Fellowship: sharing and interchange of ideas for enrichment of team capabilities as well as research training grants for 10-week programs in DoD labs 

  • Dedicated funding for 2 people to attend the annual Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS). MHSRS is the Department of Defense’s foremost scientific meeting that focuses specifically on the unique medical needs of the Warfighter and peacetime health care system 

  • Distinguished Lecture Series: fund travel and honorarium for key thought leaders to provide keynote presentations to selected Schools of Health Science to foster greater research collaborations. Such an annual lecture brings prominent faculty and industry researchers to campus. The purpose of the visit is to provide inspiring role models that will encourage students to pursue research for military medicine. 

  • Student internship programs: CMMR has established with three premier DoD medical labs (USARIEM, Natick, MA; USUHS, Bethesda, MD; and the USAISR, San Antonio, TX), an opportunity for two students (non-underrepresented and underrepresented minority) a 10-week internship with full stipend to conduct research in a health care field 

  • CMMR meets weekly with the university Government Relations leadership to coordinate exchanges on DoD and VA initiatives to include discussions with congressional and military leaders that may lead to congressional special interest funding.   

  • Quarterly DoD Research Meeting established with all Associate Research Deans in Health Sciences 

  • Such meetings will spotlight for faculty and students DoD awards to researchers for projects that focus on the advancements in military medicine and public health benefits for research opportunities covering a wide variety of disciplines and topics.  

  • Student Outreach and Engagement Efforts: CMMR will facilitate, with points of contact, across the 6 Schools of Health Sciences, opportunities for students and faculty to understand the network of DoD Education and Research Agreements established by CMMR at the University of Pittsburgh.  

  • Currently there are six such agreements in place and several are being added for upcoming program and research opportunities. 

  • Commercialization: Innovation Institute outreach. CMMR wants to be at the forefront, with the University of Pittsburgh, in contributing to military medical technology advancement. CMMR, with other partners across the university, recently announced that Pitt was selected as one of 56 prime contractors for the Defense Health Agency’s OMNIBUS IV* contract. This is a 5-year contract with a total potential award (for the entire program) of up to $10 Billion. CMMR initiated, organized, and led the internal team that spent 6 months putting the proposal together and identifying its 10 academic and 64 industry partners. We anticipate DoD Task Orders released in the September 2022 time frame across a broad range of research topics that cover the full spectrum of basic, applied, and translational research.   

*Such an ambitious endeavor required a highly skilled team and over the past two years CMMR has formed an internal network to accomplish what the OMNIBUS award from the Defense Health Agency (DHA) may require. CMMR will work closely with the McGowan Institute and the Innovation Institute and other entrepreneurial initiatives that lead to advanced development for commercialization. 

Communications 

The Center for Military Medicine Research (CMMR) will work closely with Marketing, Communications and Media to ensure timely, professional communication regarding CMMR-related success in attracting DoD funded research to the University of Pittsburgh. As a summary statement of impact, during the threats of the COVID pandemic, in FY 2020 and FY 2021 CMMR was responsible for attracting DoD awards amounting to $46, 953, 864 and $50,407,437, respectively, from the DoD including direct awards and pass-through awards. CMMR will maintain a website, have an active presence on social media platforms and is aligned to support university communications efforts with content. CMMR will engage with the media and community/governmental entities and DoD/federal leaders. Additionally, the Center for Military Medicine Research will conduct and/or support educational and community engagement events to advance collaborations and partnerships in the fields of military medicine and research as well as cultivate a military culture within the university community. 

*This document will be reviewed and updated on an as-needed basis. 

 Updated on August 31, 2022