Oral Health Research Infrastructure Planning at MUSC

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请请求NIDCR提供资金，以支持基础设施改善计划的发展，以增强南卡罗来纳医科大学（MUSC）及其牙科医学院的口腔健康研究基础设施和劳动力能力。计划拨款是及时的，允许学院利用现有的机会，并确定其功能和组织结构。基础设施改善计划的目标有三个方面：改善马里兰大学及其牙科医学院的口腔健康研究基础设施；通过招聘和留住研究人员，特别强调代表性不足的少数民族，加强口腔卫生研究能力；并建立机构内部和机构间的联系，以增强和扩大学院的口腔健康研究能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is a request for funds from the NIDCR to support the development of an infrastructure improvement plan to enhance the oral health research infrastructure and workforce capacity at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and its College of Dental Medicine. The planning grant is timely, permitting the college to leverage existing opportunities and define its functional and organizational structure. The goal of the Infrastructure Improvement Plan is threefold: to improve the oral health research infrastructure within MUSC and its College of Dental Medicine; to strengthen oral health research capabilities by recruiting and retaining research personnel, with special emphasis on underrepresented minorities; and to establish intra- and inter-institutional linkages that augment and expand the college's oral health research capacity. Short-term objectives are: to develop processes and methods to assess needs, opportunities, and capacity to conduct oral health-related research, including determination of current barriers to research; to select particular areas for oral health research development and enhancement; to formulate a strategy aimed at a Phase II, two-year implementation plan in which the capability of the College of Dental Medicine to conduct scientifically meritorious oral health research is significantly strengthened. The long-term objective is to enhance the oral health research infrastructure at MUSC and its College of Dental Medicine, with the goal of establishing specialized centers of research, poised to compete nationally, in partnership with other academic units, for individual research project grants, program projects, shared instrumentation, research training awards, and center grants in areas relevant to the mission of NIDCR.