Assessing the organizational climate for translational research with a new survey tool
Promoting biomedical translation from bench to bedside and back in organizational settings is a central challenge for research managers and policymakers. For this, organizational leaders need to assess baseline conditions, identify areas needing improvement, and to judge the impact of specific initiatives to sustain or improve translational research practices at their institutions. Currently, there is a lack of such an assessment tool addressing the specific context of translational biomedical research. To close this gap, we have developed and tested a new survey for assessing the organizational climate for translational research. This self-assessment tool measures employees’ perceptions of translational climate and underlying research practices in organizational environments and builds on the established Survey of Organizational Research Climate. Having implemented the new survey in practice, we show that scientists at a large university hospital (Charité Berlin) perceive translation as a central and important component of their work. Importantly, local resources and direct support are main contributing factors for the practical implementation of translation into their own research practice. We identify and discuss potential leverage points for an improvement of research climate to foster successful translational research.