Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A drug-discovery programme partners with clinical trial networks to accelerate T1 translation.
- Is an instance
An education researcher runs a T4 study examining policy uptake of evidence-based interventions.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
Labelling discovery research as 'translational' on the basis of remote potential applications.
- Not an instance
A 'translational' programme with no defined translation phase or partner audience.
Editorial commentary
Translational research was popularised in biomedical contexts through the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) programme and Sung et al.'s 'T1/T2' model (2003) which was later extended to T0-T4 phases: discovery (T0), translation to humans (T1), translation to patients (T2), translation to practice (T3) and translation to community/population (T4). The term has spread beyond biomedicine to engineering ('lab to market'), social sciences ('evidence into policy') and education. Translational research overlaps with implementation science but emphasises the directional flow from basic discovery toward application.
References
- Sung NS et al. 'Central challenges facing the national clinical research enterprise' JAMA 2003. NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (ncats.nih.gov).
Also known as
Bench-to-bedside research · Discovery-to-practice research
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
vocab-term="Translational research"
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"description": "Research that bridges discovery science and practical application, translating findings from laboratory or theoretical work into improvements in clinical care, policy, products or services.",
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"sameAs": [
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