Penn Resources

The SPCRP shares resources to support clinical research personnel and research staff across the University of Pennsylvania. This page brings together university-wide tools, research support offices, operational systems, and data resources that help staff navigate and successfully conduct clinical research at Penn.

Clinical research roles span many functions—including Research Assistants, Clinical Research Coordinators, Research Project Managers, Regulatory Specialists, Business Administrators, Data Analysts, Grants Managers, Associate Directors, and Directors—and these resources are intended to support professionals across this spectrum.

This is not an exhaustive list but is intended to help research staff identify tools, offices, and services that support their work and professional growth. We welcome submissions of additional resources, such as relevant organizations, training opportunities, or staff benefits, that we can amplify for your colleagues. Email us psom-penncrc@pobox.upenn.edu.

University-Wide:

  1. University of Pennsylvania Almanac: The Almanac is the University’s official weekly publication of record that delivers updates on policy, research highlights (including clinical research achievements), governance, and campus news relevant to faculty and professional staff.
  2. Penn Libraries: Penn Libraries provides comprehensive information resources, research support services, and access to vast physical and digital scholarly collections that are essential for conducting literature reviews, managing research data, and supporting evidence-based clinical research.
  3. Office of Organization Effectiveness (OOE): The Office of Organization Effectiveness offers leadership development, professional training, coaching, and organizational consulting that helps teams improve performance, foster collaboration, and enhance staff effectiveness within Penn Medicine.
  4. Penn Professional Staff Assembly (PPSA): The Penn Professional Staff Assembly advocates for and connects monthly-paid professional staff across the University, providing networking, resources, and events that can enhance the work environment and professional growth of all staff members.
    • PPSA’s Annual Employee Resource Fair: The Penn Professional Staff Assembly (PPSA) and the Weekly-Paid Professional Staff Assembly (WPPSA), in collaboration with the Offices of the Executive Vice President and the Department of Human Resources, proudly present an Employee Resource Fair every year. Open to all Penn staff and faculty, this free event provides access to information on the vast resources and services available to Penn employees. The event is typically held in the fall (September–November), so stay tuned for 2026!
  5. U@Penn: U@Penn, used for faculty, staff, and students, is a comprehensive, one-stop-shop, with information regarding benefits, tax information, policies, and more.

Research-Specific:

  1. Office of Clinical Research (OCR): The Office of Clinical Research serves as a central hub for clinical research infrastructure, policies, and support services that help investigators and research staff navigate and conduct clinical trials effectively at Penn Medicine.
  2. Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT): The Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics fosters interdisciplinary translational research by providing resources, training, and collaboration opportunities that help bridge basic science discoveries with clinical application and therapeutic development.
  3. Office of Research Services (ORS): The Office of Research Services supports researchers at the University of Pennsylvania by managing externally sponsored research projects across their full lifecycle, including proposal submission, award negotiation, and post-award financial and administrative assistance. It provides administrative systems, guidance, and compliance support to help faculty and staff successfully conduct funded research.
  4. Research Integrity Office - Office of the Vice Provost for Research: The Research Integrity Office oversees research compliance and ethical standards at Penn, including management of financial conflicts of interest and promotion of responsible conduct of research. It also develops training and guidance to ensure faculty, staff, and students follow regulatory requirements and maintain research integrity.

Clinical Research Operations:

  1. BEN Buys: BEN Buys is Penn’s purchasing system within the Business Enterprise Network (BEN) that allows authorized staff to create requisitions and purchase orders for goods and services through the Penn Marketplace or non-catalog requests. It supports procurement, approvals, and financial tracking for departmental purchases. 
  2. Greenphire ClinCard: Greenphire ClinCard is a payment system used to compensate clinical research participants through a reloadable prepaid debit card or other electronic payment methods. It allows study teams to securely load, track, and manage participant payments in real time.
  3. eShip@Penn: eShip@Penn is Penn’s centralized online shipping platform that allows departments to create and manage express shipping labels (e.g., FedEx, UPS, DHL) and track shipments while using negotiated university shipping rates. Fun fact: you can also use eShip for your own personal shipping needs.
  4. PennChart: PennChart is Penn Medicine’s electronic medical record system (based on Epic) used for clinical care and research activities. Research staff can access study-related patient information, recruitment tools, and documentation features depending on their assigned role.
  5. iConnect: iConnect is Penn Medicine’s clinical trial recruitment platform that allows patients to search for studies, join a volunteer registry, and connect with research teams. It also provides study teams with tools to manage recruitment, prescreen participants, and track enrollment activities.  
    1. Here is the link to log into the iConnect portal
  6. PennCRMS: PennCRMS (Velos) is Penn’s clinical research management system used to track and manage operational aspects of clinical studies, including participant enrollment, study calendars, data collection, and financial reporting. It integrates with PennChart to keep study and enrollment data synchronized. 

Ancillary and Regulatory:

  1. Institutional Review Board (IRB): The Institutional Review Board is a federally regulated committee that reviews all biomedical and social behavioral research conducted under Penn and Penn Medicine to ensure it meets ethical, regulatory, and policy standards that protect the rights and welfare of human participants. Penn IRB provides guidance and support to the Penn research community and hold weekly office hours.
  2. Positron Emission Tomography Center (PET Center): The Position Emission Tomography Center facilitates molecular imaging for basic and clinical research across multiple disciplines: Cardiology, Neurology, Oncology, Psychiatry. The PET Center oversees system quality control, enhances and develops imaging protocols, and leads the development and testing of new PET/CT systems.
  3. Penn Investigational Drug Service (Penn IDS): Penn Investigational Drug Service is a research pharmacy for the University of Pennsylvania community and a core facility of Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM). Penn IDS helps manage investigational drugs and related documentation and support clinical teams to run investigational studies per regulatory guidelines.
  4. Penn Center for Human Phenomics Science (Penn CHPS): Penn Center for Human Phenomics Science facilitates the resources and environment needed to support and advance high‑quality, translational research by qualified investigators. CHPS works with clinical research teams to help prepare and conduct clinical research visits.
  5. Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy (CAMRIS): The Center for Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy is a radiology research core at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine (PSOM), which oversees the responsible use of Magnetic Resonance (MR) technology throughout the human and animal research studies, as requested. CAMRIS provides services to a wide range of Penn Medicine investigators and external collaborators.
  6. Center for Advanced Computed Tomography Services (CACTIS): The Center for Advanced Computed Tomography Services is a research core at the Perelman School of Medicine and supports researchers by helping them effectively use Radiology resources and by reviewing all proposed human, animal, phantom, and specimen studies. CACTIS goals are to ensure CT‑based research complies with CACTIS, University, and federal policies, and to confirm that sufficient resources—such as staff, software, hardware, and scanner time—are available to carry out each study.
  7. Department of Medicine Clinical Trials Unit (DOM CTU): The Department of Medicine Clinical Trials Unit supports clinical trials of all types, from offering consultation to managing all aspects of trial launch and execution: support clinical trial operations, enhance research quality and capacity, mentor research staff, and share key resources.
  8. Clinical Trials Scientific Review and Monitoring (CTSRMC): The Clinical Trials Scientific Review and Monitoring reviews the scientific merit, design, feasibility, and progress of all cancer‑related studies at Penn and CHOP and must approve each protocol before IRB approval and enrollment. 
  9. Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC): The Institutional Biosafety Committee is responsible for independently evaluating the biosafety of recombinant materials used in research. IBC ensures full compliance with NIH Guidelines and reviews projects involving recombinant or synthetic nucleic acids, biologics developed with these technologies, and novel gene‑editing methods. 

Data-Specific:

  1. Penn Data Analytics Center (PennDnA): The Penn Data Analytics Center provides enterprise data analytics services for Penn Medicine, including decision support, data access, reporting, and visualization. It helps administrators, clinicians, and researchers use institutional data to inform operational decisions, quality improvement, and research initiatives.
  2. Center for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (CCEB): The Center for Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics is an interdisciplinary research center at the Perelman School of Medicine that connects epidemiologists, biostatisticians, and clinicians to study population health and clinical outcomes. It supports collaborative research, statistical analysis, and training programs to improve disease prevention, treatment, and healthcare delivery.
  3. REDCap: REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure web application that can be used to build and manage surveys and databases online, providing an efficient process for developing projects. REDCap also provides audit trails for tracking data manipulation and user activity, as well as automated export procedures for seamless data downloads to Excel, PDF, and common statistical packages (e.g., SPSS, R, SAS).