From the Bench to the Battlefield: The Research Transition Office

The Army-wide Battlemind concept developed by CMPN researchers and their USAMRU-E affiliates is one of the most prominent and widespread programs to have sprung from the center’s work, but it’s one of a multitude of valuable applications to arise from WRAIR’s military psychiatry and neuroscience research. When the center was reorganized in 2009, it established a distinct organization, the Research Transition Office (RTO), to translate the findings of each of its five research assets into training and information products that can be used by the Army through its training programs, including Initial Military Training (IMT), or “basic training,” and its Professional Military Education (PME), the progression of coursework that prepares officers for leadership.

The Army-wide Battlemind concept developed by CMPN researchers and their USAMRU-E affiliates is one of the most prominent and widespread programs to have sprung from the center’s work, but it’s one of a multitude of valuable applications to arise from WRAIR’s military psychiatry and neuroscience research.

The RTO connects the center’s research-based recommendations to the Army’s operational requirements. Its mission, said Bliese, is simple: “To take some of the research findings that might normally be published in a scientific journal and to translate that into material that would be fed back into the Army’s school system and into other programs, like Comprehensive Soldier Fitness, very quickly.” The RTO provides an internal fast track; rather than publishing and waiting for an idea to catch on, it pushes relevant data out into the field.

Such a proactive approach seems necessary for an organization such as the Army, which requires extreme agility – but it’s not always easily achieved, especially for the Military Psychiatry branch. “We’ve always had this issue: How do we translate this science into something the Army can act upon?” Bliese said. “For a lot of what we develop here – say, with the Mental Health Advisory Teams – it’s not always clear how to turn those information products into actionable information for the Army. Unlike, say, the neuroprotection group, where at the end of the day they might have a device you can put into the field that assesses biomarkers for PTSD, or looks for TBI in a blood sample, or a pill to treat a traumatic brain injury, a lot of what we do appears in the form of a journal article – and feeding that scientific literature back into the Army system has been the mission for this Research Transition Office.”

Whether they are investigating the physical or the psychological dimensions of mental and behavioral health, Bliese believes the scientists in the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience are proactive, mission focused, and innovative. “I think we’ve been very adaptive to the issues the Army defines as relevant,” he said, “and we’ve been good at applying science to those issues to help provide solutions.”

Whether they are investigating the physical or the psychological dimensions of mental and behavioral health, Bliese believes the scientists in the Center for Military Psychiatry and Neuroscience are proactive, mission focused, and innovative. “I think we’ve been very adaptive to the issues the Army defines as relevant,” he said, “and we’ve been good at applying science to those issues to help provide solutions.”

1. The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography. Volume 1, Editor Larry R. Squire [Society for Neuroscience], Washington, D.C., 1996.
2. From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1981, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg [Nobel Foundation], Stockholm, 1982.

This article first appeared in Walter Reed Army Institute of Research: 120 Years of Advances for Military and Public Health.