The Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program supports a national network of medical research institutions working to expedite the development of treatments and interventions for patients who need them. High-performing translational teams (TTs) are critical for advancing evidence-based approaches that improve human health, but they often face unique challenges. As “…a hybrid of an academic knowledge-generating team and an industry-like product development team,” the work done by TTs is complex and evolving as the work progresses through the translational pipeline (Brasier et al. 2023). The management of such teams can be challenging, and poor project management may be more to blame for the difficulties that arise in health-related research projects than flaws in research methodology (Payne et al. 2011). Thus, effective project management tailored for TTs may help them overcome the unique challenges they face.

There is a huge amount of variability in how project management is handled for TTs across CTSAs. While there are CTSAs that provide dedicated project management resources for the translational research teams they serve, some provide what some refer to as project management “lite”, and finally, others provide few to no resources. For those TTs that have no dedicated resources, it is usually up to the Principal Investigator of the team to ensure these duties are covered. It is difficult to conduct innovative research when saddled with the cognitive burden of managing the administrative tasks of the team (Kelly et al. 2023). Engaging a dedicated project manager is one way to alleviate this burden. Despite the obvious benefits of effective project management, not all TTs welcome the role of the dedicated project manager. Some teams see the new personnel as an interloper, there to oversee and micromanage. Even the personas developed by Gonzales et al. (2019, 2023) do not include the role of a dedicated project manager.

To learn more about the role of project managers on TTs, we conducted qualitative interviews of 14 dedicated project managers from six different CTSAs. Participants were asked about the challenges they faced in meeting the needs of the translational teams they worked with, and to report on the support and resources their CTSAs provided. They were then asked to describe examples of notable successes and the factors that contributed to those successes. Finally, participants described the ideal project management set up based on their experience. All interviews were transcribed verbatim, and participants given pseudonyms to protect confidentiality. Data analysis involved coding transcripts for emerging themes. Information derived from the thematic analysis will be used to identify barriers to effective project management, establish a project management resource at our CTSA and develop training materials for those who serve in this important role on their team. This presentation will summarize the study results and suggest future steps to champion the role of the dedicated project manager on TTs ultimately advancing more innovative health solutions.