About the Center: The Forum for Collaborative Research’s Data & Analysis Center (Forum’s D&A Center) at the University of California Berkeley (UCB) School of Public Health (SPH) is a neutral venue for data sharing and analysis that aims to serve the needs of industry and regulatory agencies in advancing data science for drug development, thus serving patients most of all.
The Center provides a curated repository of clinical data and an innovative set of analytical tools to facilitate answering critical questions of drug safety and efficacy in novel cost-effective ways that will reduce time and cost of drug evaluation while maintaining or enhancing the scientific basis of that evaluation. The Center also works to translate and disseminate new knowledge through convening opportunities to discuss “Innovation in Data Use and Analysis” for Forum stakeholders including, academia, regulatory agencies, industry, patient organizations, and professional societies to share lessons learned and provide opportunities for cross-comparison of analytic approaches and a framework for training in novel analytic approaches in a disease specific context.
Today’s regulatory context demands innovation in trial design, data use and analytic approaches. Regulators, industry, and the academics are grappling with how best to implement innovative data use and analytic approaches. There is no committed/dedicated space for comprehensive discussion of, testing and evaluating innovative approaches.
The Forum’s D&A Center focuses on filling the following two gaps, which if filled will accelerate drug development:
- a safe approach for data sharing across industry, and across sectors (e.g. private and publicly held data) to meet the demand for efficient use of “totality of data”; and
- a venue for ongoing discussion, evaluation, and training in innovation in data use and analytics
Neutrality and objectivity constitute the main principles of every collaborative database at the center. This is achieved through specific project Scientific Advisory Committees with representation and active engagement of scientific experts from all stakeholder groups including: academia, industry, patient organizations and regional patient representatives, regulatory agencies, and community representatives from trial areas. Scientific Advisory Committees provide overall scientific leadership, general feedback on project development, sustainability, new directions, and help identify area of focus. The committees review research proposals and analyses requests from collaborating partners and public health-oriented organizations to be performed by the Forum for Collaborative Research’s Data & Analysis Center staff on their behalf.
The center works closely with other units at Berkeley including Berkeley Research IT and the Center for Targeted Machine Learning.
