Team Science was the theme of this year’s two-day conference, and we were honored to host keynote speaker L. Michelle Bennett, PhD, Director of the Center for Research Strategy at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Dr. Bennett discussed the importance of multidisciplinary teams as a strong catalyst for translating research. Her presentation, entitled “Team Science for CTR: A marathon not a Sprint,” highlighted the challenges of working within interdisciplinary teams and the characteristics that contribute to successful collaborations. Dr. Bennett indicated that advancing science inherently involves collaborating with experts in other fields and she emphasized the need to establish trust and set expectations within teams. “The idea is to maximize your time researching,” said Dr. Bennett, but by ignoring the interpersonal factors within the team, “you could end up going off the rails and spending more time on personnel issues.”

James Linder, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Nebraska Medicine, also helped us kick off the meeting. Dr. Linder stressed the importance of investing in higher learning. Dr. Linder believes that this investment is what has led to the success we have seen as a nation and has also contributed to science and the world. “The American university is a transformative power in the world,” he said, adding “if we don’t invest in American universities, we are doomed to be on a downward course.”

Both days of the ASM featured breakout sessions. The topics of these sessions were based on a large-scale needs assessment conducted by the GP IDeA-CTR. The sessions focused on 1) clarifying researcher needs to build infrastructure for clinical and translational research and 2) developing action plans to address these needs. These solutions will build an even more sustainable and effective research infrastructure for CTR, and, ultimately, improve the health and lives of residents in our region.