Admissions
Admissions Criteria
Timeline
The Master of Science in Clinical Research Program accepts applications from December 15 through February 28 each year. In order to guarantee that you are considered for admission, we must receive your application and all component parts by February 28. Students will be notified via email of admission decisions approximately 1-2 months following the close of the application cycle.
Financial Assistance
The Institute for Clinical Research Education does not provide financial aid. Unless students have other funding sources, they are responsible for covering the tuition costs, taxes, and fees associated with their course enrollment.
Degree Requirements
Core Curriculum
The purpose of the core curriculum is to provide trainees with the basic set of skills that are required by clinical investigators in all fields of interest. These skills include an understanding of research design, epidemiologic methods, biostatistics, study and survey design, and measurement of outcomes.
The four core courses that comprise the core curriculum are offered in July and August. They are commonly taken together but can be distributed over two summer terms with the guidance of an academic advisor.
CLRES 2005 - COMPUTER METHODS FOR CLINICAL RESEARCH
CLRES 2010 - CLINICAL RESEARCH METHODS
CLRES 2020 - BIOSTATISTICS
CLRES 2040 - MEASUREMENT IN CLINICAL RESEARCH
Advanced Grant Writing Course
This course focuses on research design and development and is a two-part course offered during the fall and spring terms. The Advanced Grant Writing course is taken by MS students during year 2.
CLRES 2071 ADVANCED GRANT WRITING PART 1
CLRES 2072 - ADVANCED GRANT WRITING PART 2
Specialty Track Requirements:
Students who enter the Master of Science in Clinical Research Program will select a curriculum track that offers specialized training in a specific clinical research area. Each specialty track offers a different curriculum of required courses, which can be viewed in the Program Handbook. The MS program has 5 specialty tracks:
- Clinical Trials Research Track
- Comparative Effectiveness Research Track
- Health Services Research Track
- Translational Research Track
- Innovation Track
Each of these tracks has a distinct set of required courses that allow students to specialize in an area of clinical research. All MS students will also take a selection of elective courses to reach the 30 credit minimum required for this degree.
Comprehensive Competency Review:
The Comprehensive Competency review is a program check-in completed at the midpoint of a student’s degree progress. The MS in Clinical Research Program is designed to train students in the skills, knowledge, and professional norms for clinical researchers and the Comprehensive Competency Review helps students be confident that they are on track to develop competence in all key areas.
Thesis or Substantive Research Project:
The MS in Clinical Research requires each student to complete a formal thesis or substantive research project. Students are able to write a standard thesis, grant proposal, or 2 manuscripts to fulfill this requirement.
Students must successfully defend their research project to a review committee as required by the University’s Committee on Graduate Studies.
Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) Requirement
Clinical Research Master of Science students are required to attend eight 1-hour CTSI Responsible Conduct in Research workshops or enroll in the ICRE course CLRES 2050: Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research. At the time of graduation, students must have at least 8 hours of RCR training through CTSI or have successfully completed CLRES 2050 in order to be eligible to graduate.
More Information:
For additional program details, please visit the Master of Science in Clinical Research Program (http://www.icre.pitt.edu/MSClinicalResearch/index.html) and review the Program Handbook (http://www.icre.pitt.edu/documents/Clinical_Research_Handbook.pdf.)
